Neurosurgeons report finds 90% of whiplash patients stop treatment after legal action ends

More than nine out of 10 whiplash patients fail to return for additional treatment once their legal action is completed.

The finding is from a unpublished study of 100 patients attending the Mater Hospital pain management service.

The revelation that nine out of 10 whiplash patients fail to return for treatment following the completion of their legal action has been revealed by two leading neurosurgeons.

The Irish Times reports that a paper by Jack Philips and Ciaran Bolger, neurosurgeons at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin, describes whiplash as a "concept" surrounded by "myths" and not based on scientific evidence.

The doctors say people who suffer whiplash in sport and do not take legal action recover in six to 12 weeks.

While they say this tends not to be the case for people who take legal action after being involved in a collision.

A separate study of patients of a Galway spinal surgeon found that just 10 out of 301 were seen in his clinic after their litigation came to an end.