Hi Vanessa,

Just to give you a quickish answer. Usually when they do these studies they pick a group of people who are likely to contract RSD. Who are they? you might ask, and the answer is "Me!" (for one).

I'm still outraged that they know perfectly well that people who break their arm with a Colles fracture (the most common type of arm break) have a - statistics vary - 7 to 35% chance of ending up with RSD. The figure most often quoted is 28%. That is enormously high...did anyone warn me? Of course not. But I noticed that the orthos who diagnosed RSD, following my Colles fracture, were sad for me and unsurprised....

Knee injuries have a high risk of leading to RSD too.

So, they perform studies on groups of people with injuries statistically shown to lead to higher incidences of RSD. The one I remember immediately was in the UK (Dr. Andrew McBride in the UK at the the Bristol Royal Infirmary in 2003) on the efficacy of using vitamin C. They gave the Colles fracture people huge clinical amounts (via an IV) of vitamin C when they performed surgery to reset the bones, followed by large doses for a while after.

Here's a BBC story on it, from 2003, you need to scroll down - there are better refs, I just happened to find this link:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3383965.stm

and a more recent one:
http://crps-rsd-a-better-life.blogsp...-possible.html

In this study far less people with a Colles fracture developed RSD following the injury than the people who hadn't had the whopping vitamin treatment.

There is another far better known study using vitamin E - sorry, can't remember the details of where and when...maybe the Dutch? Vic will know.

Here's another link to Vitamin C research:
http://www.rsdfoundation.org/en/Prev...RSD_Intro.html
Again scroll down, or Find "Vitamin C".

I seem to remember, though, that they all concluded that it takes giant clinical amounts in IV form to make the difference.

So, unfortunately, it seems a closely-guarded secret that they can make some predictions as to who might develop RSD. Also, despite the evidence, there aren't many places routinely giving this vitamin treatment to people in the "high risk" groups at the time of the initial injury. Makes you weep, doesn't it!

Of course, no one can say who *will* get RSD, but in the world of research statistics are about the only truly convincing way of doing it.

Just wanted to get this off while I thought of it, sorry I haven't time to give you more refs, but the info is all out there...

all the best