Patients' expectation of getting better is crucial in recovery from whiplash

Research into whiplash published in this week’s PLoS Medicine has found that an individual’s expectation of getting better plays a crucial role in the likelihood of his or her recovery, even after the severity of their physical and psychological symptoms are taken into account. Lena Holm at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden and colleagues from Sweden and Canada investigated the role of individuals’ expectation of recovery by using a questionnaire-based study of adult insurance claimants.