Mindset & REcovery From Injury

Hi Graham,

That's an excellent article, thanks for bringing it to our attention.

Yet more proof of the mind-body connection and how thinking style affects physical health.

I was interested to note the differences between countries:

long-term pain may arise from "choices" patients make based on their view of whiplash, which, Ferrari said, may be "culturally determined."

.

One factor, that they didn't consider, but I wondered about would be financial compensation for injury as a factor.

Mike

Very good point about the financial compensation factor. I'm sure it's no coincidence that the highest incidence of chronic pain from whiplash (about 50%) is in North America where the "compensation culture" is rife.

Graham

Hi Graham and Mike

A very interesting piece of research. I remember reading research that people recover from psychoptic ilnesses such as schizophrenia much quicker in third world cultures, such as parts of Africa because sufferers and those around them don't expect the illness to last long.

One's prognosis for psychosis, so to speak, is much worse in industrialised countries with all our medications and institutions! Again cultural expectaions seem to be the vital factor.

I wonder if the reserachers in the whiplash study allowed for any symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I would think that pain perception would be higher in crach victims who experience flash backs, for example, as they would 're-live' the physical pain to some extent as well as the emotional shock.

Mark.