Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Treatment-Related Reductions in Disability Are Associated with Reductions in Perceived Injustice Following Treatment of Whiplash Injury

  • Published:
Psychological Injury and Law Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Emerging evidence suggests that perceived injustice is a risk factor for poor recovery outcomes in individuals with whiplash injuries. The present study examined the relative contributions of treatment-related reductions in pain severity, depressive symptoms, and disability in the prediction of reductions in perceived injustice in individuals with whiplash injury. The study sample consisted of 71 individuals (43 women and 28 men) who sustained whiplash injuries in motor vehicle accidents and who were enrolled in a treatment program designed to promote functional recovery following whiplash injury. For the purposes of this study, only individuals who scored above the risk threshold on a measure of perceived injustice were included in the study sample. Participants completed measures of pain severity, disability, depressive symptomatology, and perceived injustice prior to treatment and after treatment. Change scores were computed for study variables. The results revealed that reductions in pain severity and disability were correlated with reductions in perceived injustice. Regression analyses revealed that only reductions in disability contributed significant unique variance to the prediction of reductions in perceived injustice. Clinical and theoretical implications of the present findings are discussed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Adams, J. S. (1965). Inequity in social exchange. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 2). New York: Academic.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arnau, R. C., Meagher, M. W., Norris, M. P., & Bramson, R. (2001). Psychometric evaluation of the Beck Depression Inventory-II with primary care medical patients. Health Psychology, 20(2), 112–119.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Beck, A., Steer, R., & Brown, G. K. (1996). Manual for the Beck Depression Inventory-II. San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corporation.

  • Berglund, A., Bodin, L., Jensen, I., Wiklund, A., & Alfredsson, L. (2006). The influence of prognostic factors on neck pain intensity, disability, anxiety and depression over a 2-year period in subjects with acute whiplash injury. Pain, 125(3), 244–256.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Boothby, J. L., Thorn, B. E., Overduin, L. Y., & Ward, L. C. (2004). Catastrophizing and perceived partner responses to pain. Pain, 109(3), 500–506.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bruehl, S., Burns, J. W., Chung, O. Y., Ward, P., & Johnson, B. (2002). Anger and pain sensitivity in chronic low back pain patients and pain-free controls: The role of endogenous opioids. Pain, 99(1–2), 223–233.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Burns, J. W., Holly, A., Quartana, P., Wolff, B., Gray, E., & Bruehl, S. (2008). Trait anger management style moderates effects of actual (“state”) anger regulation on symptom-specific reactivity and recovery among chronic low back pain patients. Psychosomatic Medicine, 70(8), 898–905.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Carlsmith, K. M., & Darley, J. M. (2008). Psychological aspects of retributive justice. In A. W. Kruglanski (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 40, pp. 193–236). Dublin, Ireland: Elsevier.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Darley, J. M. (2001). Citizens’ sense of justice and the legal system. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 10(1), 10–13.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Evans, T. H., Mayer, T. G., & Gatchel, R. J. (2001). Recurrent disabling work-related spinal disorders after prior injury claims in a chronic low back pain population. Spine Journal, 1, 183–189.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ferrari, R. (2015). A prospective study of perceived injustice in whiplash victims and its relationship to recovery. Clinical Rheumatology, 34(5), 975–979.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ghavidel-Parsa, B., Amir Maafi, A., Aarabi, Y., Haghdoost, A., Khojamli, M., Montazeri, A., . . . Bidari, A. (2015). Correlation of invalidation with symptom severity and health status in fibromyalgia. Rheumatology, 54(3), 482–486.

  • Greenwood, K. A., Thurston, R., Rumble, M., Waters, S. J., & Keefe, F. J. (2003). Anger and persistent pain: Current status and future directions. Pain, 103(1–2), 1–5.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Harris, S., Morley, S., & Barton, S. B. (2003). Role loss and emotional adjustment in chronic pain. Pain, 105, 363–370.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • IBM Corp. (2011). IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows (Version 20.0). Armonk, NY: IBM Corp.

  • Kool, M. B., van Middendorp, H., Lumley, M. A., Schenk, Y., Jacobs, J. W., Bijlsma, J. W., & Geenen, R. (2010). Lack of understanding in fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis: The Illness Invalidation Inventory (3*I). Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, 69(11), 1990–1995.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lagnado, D. A., & Channon, S. (2008). Judgments of cause and blame: The effects of intentionality and foreseeability. Cognition, 108(3), 754–770.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Levmore, S., & Sharkey, C. M. (2012). Foundations of tort law. New York: Thompson Reuters/Foundation Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lind, E. A., & Tyler, T. R. (1988). The social psychology of procedural justice. New York: Plenum.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Lyons, R., & Sullivan, M. J. L. (1998). Curbing loss in illness and disability. In J. Harvey (Ed.), Perspectives on personal and interpersonal loss (pp. 579–605). New York: Taylor & Francis.

    Google Scholar 

  • McParland, & Eccleston, C. (2013). “It’s Not Fair” social justice appraisals in the context of chronic pain. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 22(6), 484–489.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McParland, Eccleston, C., Osborn, M., & Hezseltine, L. (2011). It’s not fair: An interpretative phenomenological analysis of discourses of justice and fairness in chronic pain. Health (London, England), 15(5), 459–474.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mikula, G. (2003). Testing an attribution‐of‐blame model of judgments of injustice. European Journal of Social Psychology, 33(6), 793–811.

  • Mikula, G., Scherer, K. R., & Athenstaedt, U. (1998). The role of injustice in the elicitation of differential emotional reactions. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 24(7), 769–783.

  • Miller, D. T. (2001). Disrespect and the experience of injustice. Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 527–553.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Montada, L. (1992). Attribution of responsibility for losses and perceived injustice. In L. Montada, F. Sigrun-Heide, & M. J. Lerner (Eds.), Life crises and experiences of loss in adulthood. Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum and Associates.

    Google Scholar 

  • Montada, L. (1994). Injustice in harm and loss. Social Justice Research, 7(1), 5–28.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Motor Accidents Authority (2001). Guidelines for the management of whiplash-associated disorders. Retrieved from http://www.whiplashprevention.org/SiteCollectionDocuments/Research%20Articles/Medical%20-%20Whiplash/GuidelinesDiagnosingWhiplash.pdf

  • Nederhand, M. J., Hermens, H. J., Ijzerman, M. J., Turk, D. C., & Zilvold, G. (2003). Chronic pain disability due to an acute whiplash injury. Pain, 102, 63–71.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Riddle, D. L., & Stratford, P. W. (1998). Use of generic versus region-specific functional status measures on patients with cervical spine disorders. Physical Therapy, 78(9), 951–963.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Scott, Trost, Bernier, & Sullivan. (2013a). Anger differentially mediates the relationship between perceived injustice and chronic pain outcomes. Pain, 154(9), 1691–1698.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Scott, Trost, Milioto, & Sullivan. (2013b). Further validation of a measure of injury-related injustice perceptions to identify risk for occupational disability: A prospective study of individuals with whiplash injury. Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation, 23(4), 557–565.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Scott, W., Trost, Z., Milioto, M., & Sullivan, M. J. (2015). Barriers to change in depressive symptoms after multidisciplinary rehabilitation for whiplash: The role of perceived injustice. Clinical Journal of Pain, 31(2), 145–151.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Strang, H., & Braithwaite, J. (2000). Restorative justice: From philosophy to practice. Dartmouth, CT: Aldershot Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Suissa, S. (2003). Risk factors for poor prognosis after whiplash injury. Pain Research and Management, 8, 69–75.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sullivan, Adams, H., Horan, S., Maher, D., Boland, D., & Gross, R. (2008). The role of perceived injustice in the experience of chronic pain and disability: Scale development and validation. Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation, 18(3), 249–261.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sullivan, Adams, H., Martel, M. O., Scott, W., & Wideman, T. (2011). Catastrophizing and perceived injustice: Risk factors for the transition to chronicity after whiplash injury. Spine, 36(25 Suppl), S244–S249.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sullivan, Scott, W., & Trost, Z. (2012). Perceived injustice: A risk factor for problematic pain outcomes. Clinical Journal of Pain, 28(6), 484–488.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sullivan, Yakobov, E., Scott, W., & Tait, R. (2014). Perceived injustice and adverse recovery outcomes. Psychological Injury and Law, 7(4), 325–334.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Trost, Z., Scott, W., Lange, J. M., Manganelli, L., Bernier, E., & Sullivan, M. J. (2014). An experimental investigation of the effect of a justice violation on pain experience and expression among individuals with high and low just world beliefs. European Journal of Pain, 18(3), 415–423.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • U. S. Department of Health and. HumanServices, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (2015). National pain strategy. A comprehensive population health-level strategy for pain. Retrieved from http://iprcc.nih.gov/docs/DraftHHSNationalPainStrategy.pdf

  • Vernon, H., & Mior, S. (1991). The neck disability index - a study of reliability and validity. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, 14(7), 409–415.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Walker, J., Sofaer, B., & Holloway, I. (2006). The experience of chronic back pain: Accounts of loss in those seeking help from pain clinics. European Journal of Pain, 10(3), 199–207.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Watson, P. J., Booker, C. K., Moores, L., & Main, C. (2004). Returning the chronically unemployed with low back pain to employment. European Journal of Pain, 8, 359–369.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wlodyka-Demaille, S., Poiraudeau, S., Catanzariti, J. F., Rannou, F., Fermanian, J., & Revel, M. (2002). French translation and validation of 3 functional disability scales for neck pain. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 83(3), 376–382.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Yakobov, E., Scott, W., Stanish, W., Tanzer, M., Dunbar, M., Richardson, G., & Sullivan, M. (2014). Validation of injustice experiences questionnaire adapted for use with patients with severe osteoarthritis of the knee. Journal of Arthritis, 3, 130–136.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by a grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, McGill University, 1205 Doctor Penfield Avenue, Montreal, QC, H3A 1B1, Canada

    Esther Yakobov, Pascal Thibault & Michael JL Sullivan

  2. King’s College London, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, London, UK

    Whitney Scott

Authors
  1. Esther Yakobov
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Whitney Scott
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Pascal Thibault
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Michael JL Sullivan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael JL Sullivan.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of Interest

The authors have no financial interests related to the contents of this paper.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Yakobov, E., Scott, W., Thibault, P. et al. Treatment-Related Reductions in Disability Are Associated with Reductions in Perceived Injustice Following Treatment of Whiplash Injury. Psychol. Inj. and Law 9, 41–47 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12207-015-9248-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12207-015-9248-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation