Car Accidents and Licensed Physical Therapy ―The Road to Recovery
Greg MacKnight, PTA
When vehicles collide from the front, back or side, at high speed or low our bodies say, "Whoa!"
Your vehicle took the first impact, but your body went along for the ride. The impact introduced directions and speeds of movement unnatural for your body. You may have all kinds of physical and emotional reactions to an accident, but pain, inflammation, misalignment and tight, guarded muscles are typical and can strain your body's usual ability to recover, not to mention putting strain on your work and home lives. These problems can be improved with physical therapy techniques. Early physical therapy interventions after an accident are shown to maximize recovery. [1]
Published studies of whiplash-associated disorder (WAD) treatments were surveyed from 1980 to 2009, with this conclusion:
"Based on the available evidence, exercise and mobilization programs have the strongest supporting evidence for treatment of acute and chronic WAD."[i] (In this statement 'acute' refers to a duration of less than two weeks and 'chronic' refers to symptoms lingering beyond 12 weeks.)
Early intervention ideally means starting treatment within days of your accident, at the beginning of the acute stage of injury when your body is rallying to heal itself. Give it some help and seek out a good manual physical therapist. Manual physical therapists have the training and skills to supply the mobilization and exercise/movement interventions that work best. Beyond those critical skills, a good physical therapy program will also develop the right dosage of mobilization and movement to tailor the treatment for you and to keep progressing toward your best outcome and your best self.
Don't wait to seek out an effective and caring physical therapist to help you recover if the paved road showed you too many bumps. Early treatment can help you avoid lingering pain and symptoms that can keep you from living the good life.
Be well!
[1] Teasell, R., McClure, J. A., Walton, D., Pretty, J., Salter, K., Meyer, M., Sequeira, K., Death, B. (2010) A Synthesis of therapeutic interventions for whiplash-associated disorder: Part 1 – overview and summary. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2975531/