ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with a critical review of the nature of the available evidence and then considers the various types of psychiatric complication. Road traffic accidents are the leading cause of death in those aged under 40 years in developed countries and a major cause of morbidity, there has, until recently, been very little interest in their psychological and psychiatric consequences. Most road accidents are experienced as being less threatening, both because the trauma may be very brief and because only a minority of accidents are life threatening. ‘Whiplash’ has attracted much more attention than any other form of road accident injury because of its medico-legal implications, and because of a widely held belief that persistent physical symptoms may have psychological rather than social causes. It seems probable that greater recognition by others of accident survivors’ suffering and misfortune, and especially by the administration and compensation processes, would be very valuable.
