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Study shows low incidence of fibromyalgia following whiplash injury
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The incidence of fibromyalgia after acute whiplash injury was low after 1-year follow-up, according to recently published data.
Using the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) 2010 modified criteria for fibromyalgia (FM), researcher Robert Ferrari, MD, FRCPC, evaluated 268 patients treated for acute whiplash in a primary-care setting in Edmonton, Alberta, at 3 months, 6 months and 1 year after their injury. Patients were also examined for recovery from their whiplash injury at each time point.
Data were available for all patients at 3 and 6 months, and 1-year follow-up data were available for 264 patients. Patients’ mean age was 38.5 years, and 54% of the patients were women.
At 3 months, 62% of patients reported recovery from whiplash, and none met FM ACR 2010 criteria. At 6 months, 76% reported recovery from whiplash. Three patients initially met ACR 2010 criteria for FM, but on further assessment, one was diagnosed with polymyalgia rheumatic, one was diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis, and one was diagnosed with polymyositis, according to Ferrari.
At 1 year, 82% of the patients reported recovery, and two patients met ACR 2010 FM criteria with no alternative diagnosis, yielding a 0.8% 1-year incidence. Including the four patients lost to follow-up as patients with a positive diagnosis of FM increased the incidence to 2.2%. However, data available through the province-wide Netcare database suggested that only one of the four showed symptoms of chronic pain after 18 months, Ferrari reported.
The author concluded that the impression that fibromyalgia is common after whiplash injury may be a result of failure to exclude pre-collision fibromyalgia cases, or as a result of referral bias of non-recovered patients. – by Shirley Pulawski
Disclosure: Ferrari reports no relevant financial disclosures.
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