March 19, 2008

Injury pain can last for a year

Being involved in a serious accident like a car crash can have very long term effects, even if the injuries are not that serious, in fact it has been found by researchers that around sixty per cent of people involved in an accident will still be feeling some sort of pain up to a year later. This has lead to calls for medical staff to offer long term pain relief for these patients.

The research team from the University of Washington in Seattle followed over three thousand patients of all ages from eighteen to eighty four, who have been involved in a serious accident. It was this research that found that at the end of the study a year later; sixty three per cent of the patients were still reporting that they were feeling pain.

The worst areas of the body affect are joints and limbs (forty four percent of patients), the back (twenty six percent), the head (twelve percent) and neck (seven percent) and were mostly involved in car crashes, falls and other accidents that are liable to cause serious injury.

Source [Reuters]