TY - JOUR T1 - Dr. Radanov, <em>et al</em> reply JF - The Journal of Rheumatology JO - J Rheumatol SP - 656 LP - 657 DO - 10.3899/jrheum.111303 VL - 39 IS - 3 AU - BOGDAN P. RADANOV AU - ANNE F. MANNION AU - PIETRO BALLINARI Y1 - 2012/03/01 UR - http://www.jrheum.org/content/39/3/656.abstract N2 - To the Editor:The primary focus of our article1 was neither pain nor psychological profiles. In addition, we did not purport to identify a singular factor responsible for the development of chronic pain. Clearly this is a multifactorial issue, as also confirmed by others2,3, and even if statistically significant associations between baseline expectations/coping and recovery from whiplash have been shown4,5, they still explain only a proportion of the variance in outcome, suggesting they are not the only factors of importance. Moreover, the relationship does not appear to be consistent between nations6, indicating that the search for additional determinants of chronicity/longterm symptoms remains highly relevant.Although we did indeed present psychological profiles based on SCL-90-R, focusing only on these would give the wrong impression in relation to the core character of the problem in patients with a condition referred to as chronic pain. As we ultimately showed, such profiles comprise symptoms that span different diagnostic categories and at the same time fail to consider the possible importance of individual symptoms. This is one of the main messages of our article. Instead of identifying so-called specific symptoms of whiplash, we uncovered a number of different psychological, cognitive, and vegetative symptoms that … Address correspondence to Dr. B.P. Radanov, Pain Unit, Schulthess Klinik, Lengghalde 2, CH-8008 Zürich, Switzerland. E-mail: bogdan.radanov{at}kws.ch ER -