When defending Oregon lawsuits for whiplash following car accidents, insurance companies often hire "experts" to pooh-pooh the claims. Their reports all look the same: "no objective evidence" to support claims. That's like saying you can't see pain, which is true, but misses the point.
But do the insurance companies ever pay to look for objective evidence of the symptoms of chronic whiplash? Studies show that car accident whiplash patients suffer the following at a much higher rate than the general population: headache, migraines, tiredness, neck pain, upper back pain, sleep problems, thinking problems, low back pain, and many other issues. Insurance companies do not pay for tests to validate claims. Insurance companies pay for "doctors" to dismiss the claims and bad-mouth people who hurt, calling them liars, cheats, and / or crazy.
Scientists have found physical changes more prevalent among those suffering chronic whiplash-associated disorder than with the general population. I will discuss two of them.
The European Journal Of Pain reported a study of regional cerebral blood flow. Researchers C. Linnman and others used some super high-tech equipment to compare people, and, sure enough, they found changes in cerebral blood flow that matched up with their neck disabilities. So to those insurance company "doctors" I ask, "How do you fake cerebral blood flow?"
Other researchers have used Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) to study obscure details in certain flexor muscles in the neck. The journal Spine reports the study by Elliott and other researchers of "fatty infiltrate" in muscles and the cross-sectional area (CSA) of key muscles. Sure enough, the study showed more fatty infiltrate and larger muscle CSA in car accident patients than in the general population.
Elliott's most recent study of flexor muscles is consistent with his earlier study of women suffering from whiplash, which showed higher fatty infiltration their neck extensor muscles.
These objective measures can only be used for comparison purposes. It would not make sense to use them in an individual case. What the studies show is that, despite all of the slurs that whiplash victims must endure from insurance company doctors, the bodies of car accident victims suffer physical changes that you cannot see with the naked eye.
Jeff Merrick, Oregon Trial Attorney
Injury & Employment Law
503-665-4234
