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The University of Murcia (UMU) is carrying out an investigation that seeks to establish a protocol that allows professionals to detect cheating in false cases of whiplash injuries, one of the most common injuries in traffic accidents.
The research is being developed by the Service of Applied Psychology (SEPA) and the External Service of Forensic Sciences and Techniques (SECyTeF) of the UMU, which have been working since 2015 on a doctoral thesis that implements said protocol to discriminate systematically and effectively. between those people who simulate the injury and the patients who really suffer a cervical sprain.
The protocol on which they work has been constructed following the data convergence model, which contrasts various sources of information in search of inconsistencies in the expression of symptoms;
and the biopsychosocial model, which helps the evaluator to understand the influence of psychological and social factors on the medical manifestation of the phenomenon and allows applying a wide range of tools that collect the variety of symptoms and factors that make up the whiplash.
The authors of this protocol have also sought to be brief and easily integrated into the usual assessment procedure used in the legal medical context.
Today protocol is in an advanced stage of development and preliminary results have been very positive, reaching a precision of between 85% and 94% when discriminating between genuine patients and simulators.
A lesion without physiological indicators
The term cervical sprain or whiplash injury refers to an injury in the cervical area of ​​the spine usually produced after an impact between two vehicles.
This collision generates a forced extension of the neck and a violent oscillation of the head from front to back or from back to front, together with sudden movements of laterality.
One of the main characteristics of the pathology is that it does not usually offer physiological indicators, not observing any type of organic damage in approximately 90% of cases.
Therefore, its diagnosis is usually made mainly through the symptoms or discomfort referred by the patient and not by objective indications, as with a bone fracture or a muscle break.
When dealing with an injury caused by a traffic accident, those involved can claim compensation from the insurer for the damage caused.
This compensation usually ranges between 1,000 and 6,000 euros, although in some cases it may be higher, which means that pretending that this pathology is suffered generates a benefit for the injured.
This has led to an exorbitant increase in cases of cervical sprain and it is estimated that in Spain approximately 15% of traffic accidents lead to this type of injury.
The important burden of subjectivity involved in its diagnosis makes it one of the most simulated pathologies in the medical-legal context.
According to figures from the Business Insurance Association (UNESPA) released in 2015, of all the accident reports received that year, 306,000 cases were false, with an approximate cost of 550 million euros.
Source: Universidad de Murcia
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