TABLE 5.

Summary of a study evaluating a pharmacological intervention for acute whiplash-associated disorder (WAD)

Reference, year, country, score	Population and methods	Outcome measures	Results
Pettersson and Toolanen (30), 1998, Sweden, PEDro score = 8	Randomized controlled trial. 40 acute WAD patients who sought treatment within 8 h of injury were randomly assigned to receive a methylprednisolone infusion (bolus at 30 mg/kg/h for 15 min and maintenance at 5.4 mg/kg/h for 23 h) or a placebo. All patients also had a cointervention including soft collar use for 1–2 weeks, physiotherapy and analgesics	Presence of disabling symptoms severe enough to prevent the patient from returning to work, number of sick days in the 6-month period before and after the injury, and sick-leave profile for 6 months after injury	There was a significant difference between the actively treated patients and the placebo group in terms of disabling symptoms (P<0.05), total mean number of sick days (4.7 versus 51.7, P<0.01) and sick-leave profile (P<0.01), all of which favoured the actively treated group

PEDro Physiotherapy Evidence Database