Dr James Alexander, PhD- Psychologist

Few of us doubt whether people's reports of whiplash are related to the accidents which usually precede it. It seems pretty apparent that where pain did not exist before the accident, but does exist after an accident in which the person's head has been thrown around, the enusing pain will be the result of the physical injury. However, while such accidents do happen all over the world, whiplash injuries (ie. neck pain beyond the time frame needed for soft tissue injuries to heal) do not. There are countries in which people who undergo rear-end car accidents do not end up experiencing whilash pain. How can this be, if the pain is resulting from the accident? There is no suggestion here that the pain is anything other than real, however it is likely being caused by non-physical factors, e.g emotional stress, trauma, the expectation of whiplash pain, and third party insurance pay outs. Read the attached article to view the facts which relate to the incidence of whiplash in different countries.

http://www.bcmj.org/article/whiplash-social-disorder%E2%80%94how-so