Whiplash and Neck Pain-Related Disability

Chronic neck pain results in significant costs to individuals because of pain, suffering, and personal losses; and to society due to increased health care costs, disability payments, and loss of work productivity. Many people have an episode of acute neck pain, but only in a few does the pain become chronic. This chapter will examine chronic neck pain, particularly whiplash, with an emphasis on the potential predictors of chronic pain and long-term disability. In order to accomplish this, we will briefly discuss the structural causes for chronic neck pain after trauma and the results of the most important evidence-based treatments.