Whiplash and Associated Disorders

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In SA more than 2,500 people suffer whiplash in road crashes every year, representing 45% of all personal injury insurance claims and costing around $130 million. Whiplash Associated Disorders (WADs) are the most common injury for which compensation is sought under the Compulsory Third Party (CTP) scheme in South Australia.

Clinical guidelines and other resources have been released by MAC to help medical and health providers, injured people, insurance claims managers and solicitors understand more about the management of whiplash-associated disorders.

Although most people recover from Whiplash Associated Disorders (WADs), both the symptoms and recovery time associated with WADs varies considerably from person to person.

The Clinical guidelines for best practice management of acute and chronic whiplash-associated disorders offer a series of recommendations and a separate treatment strands for acute and chronic WAD. The guidelines were endorsed by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) in November 2008.

The guidelines provide directions for assessment and diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of whiplash, from the point at which a patient presents to their primary practitioner. They are intended to assist health providers delivering primary care to adults with acute or chronic neck pain after a motor vehicle collision.

The recommendations are a guide to best practice; however each case should be assessed and treated individually.

Guidelines relating to whiplash-associated disorders for health professionals and consumers can be downloaded from our Brochures and Forms page.

The University of Queensland's (UQ) Centre of National Research on Disability and Rehabilitation Medicine (CONROD - based within in the UQ School of Medicine) and the NHMRC Centre of Clinical Research Excellence in Spinal Pain, Injury and Health (CCRE Spine) have combined resources to establish the Whiplash Evidence Based Information Resource.  This resource provides evidence based information (summaries of current evidence for and against specific whiplash treatments) to the general public and health care professionals about whiplash and its management.