Research twist for whiplash victims

University of Queensland researchers are trying to uncover why some people who experience whiplash are hypersensitive to sensory tests.

The Whiplash and Neck Pain Research Unit, at UQ’s Physiotherapy Department, has widened the research it began in 1997 to show how whiplash affects the nervous system.

The unit needs volunteers who have had ongoing neck pain for longer than three months, caused by a car crash.

Physiotherapy PhD candidate Andy Chien said volunteers would only have a one-and-a-half-hour assessment at the St Lucia unit, being measured for vibration, electrical stimulation and temperature responses.

Participants will need to answer a number of questionnaires and detail the history of their condition, disability and pain.

“This research is designed to provide information that will improve our current understanding and future management of whiplash associated disorders,” Mr Chien said.

He said comparing whiplash injury to other neck pain conditions would show important differences between the conditions.

Volunteers with chronic neck pain for more than three months not as a result of a whiplash injury and healthy people without neck pain are also needed.

To volunteer or for more information contact Mr Chien (phone: 3365 4567, email: a.chien@shrs.uq.edu.au) or Miguel Holland at UQ Communications (phone: 3365 2619, email: m.holland@uq.edu.au)