type of injury and severity of injury has less to do with the final outcome than other factors such as age, sex, socioeconomic circumstance, family support, and work status
supposedly “moderate” degrees of injury such as a lower limb fracture could take years to recover from
when patients think they were a victim and someone else was at fault, they did badly compared to those who thought it was caused by their own carelessness or stupidity
the promise of compensation was found to delay recovery, and even worse in a scenario where there was protracted delay in settlement due to legal feuds
in particular, low income or unemployed people have little incentive to return to work when they are paid for not working
this effect seems to go beyond malingering, and may possibly be correlated with real physical differences in degree of recovery
perhaps part of the ED doctor's role involves putting the patient on a pathway to optimal recovery, and setting expectations around attitude, peer support and appropriate coaching.