@article{ref1,
title="Railway spine: the advent of compensation for concussive symptoms",
journal="Journal of the history of the neurosciences",
year="2020",
author="Gasquoine, Philip Gerard",
volume="ePub",
number="ePub",
pages="ePub-ePub",
abstract="The introduction of railway transportation in Great Britain in the early-nineteenth century saw an increased frequency of trauma cases involving persisting symptoms without objective evidence of injury. In 1866, a prominent surgeon, Sir John Eric Erichsen, attributed such symptoms to concussion of the spine (popularized as &quot;railway spine&quot;) that involved an organic pathology, inflammation of the spinal cord in the absence of spinal fracture, with potential psychological overlay. This was widely accepted within the medico-legal context throughout the 1870s, whereby passengers sought compensation for collision-related injuries. In 1883, a railway surgeon named Herbert William Page countered the assertion that many of Erichsen's cases likely had sustained direct physical injury to the spine, the cord, and/or the spinal nerves; and in cases without such injury, the symptoms were psychogenic, as in traumatic neurasthenia and/or hysteria. Similarities between Erichsen's and Page's medico-legal positions, such as conscious and unconscious forms of symptom exaggeration that would both resolve upon settlement of the case, ushered in the era of medical injury compensation.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0964-704X",
doi="10.1080/0964704X.2019.1711350",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0964704X.2019.1711350"
}