Some individuals may think that whiplash injury mainly causes chronic pain (e.g., neck pain) or affects mood or cognitive function. The primary purpose of the current study was to determine from an existing database derived from a 56-item symptom expectation checklist if a much

smaller checklist also is likely to capture those individuals who expect at least one symptom of whiplash injury will remain chronic. The purpose of an “expectation checklist” is to identify an individual who, when given a vignette see more regarding injury, will endorse one or more symptoms as likely to remain chronic after that injury. A previous study9 had set the case definition of an “expecter” for whiplash injury as a subject who endorsed at least one symptom that would remain chronic after a whiplash injury. These individuals were identified as expecters on a 56-item checklist in that previous study.9 To determine if a shortened, 7-item checklist would identify the same subjects as expecters as found in the previously studied 56-item checklist, subjects completed both checklists, one week apart. The results of a survey of Canadian subjects for their expectations following whiplash injury are used in this study.9 As described in the published

study, a 56-symptom expectation checklist was developed that included the same items used by Mittenberg et al.10 and Aubrey et al.11 combined, these latter authors having previously examined symptom expectation in North America without assessment of expectations of chronicity. Using this 56-item symptom expectation PFI-2 checklist, subjects were given a vignette prior to review the checklist: Automobile accidents are a fact of life and can happen to anyone. We are interested in your opinion of what symptoms or problems might affect you after an accident. Imagine that you were driving or sitting as a passenger in a car and suddenly another car hit you from behind. Your head did much not hit anything, but the force of the accident did cause your head to jerk back and caused a neck sprain (whiplash). Check YES or NO for each of the symptoms you think you might have

as a result of the accident. For those you check YES, check off ONLY ONE time period that best describes for how long you think you would have those symptoms. The instrument, as shown in earlier studies, then requires the subject to indicate the symptoms expected, but then also indicate the duration, which allowed us to examine for expectation of acute symptoms and symptoms expected to be chronic. From this aforementioned database, a shortened symptom checklist was created. First, it was noted that 119 of 179 subjects chose at least one of the 56-items as not only being expected to occur following whiplash injury, but to last for “months to years”. These subjects were labeled as having met the case definition of an expecter.