CONDITIONS

Neck Pain & Stiffness

Your neck is made up of vertebrae that extend from the skull to the upper torso. Cervical discs absorb shock between the bones.

The bones, ligaments, and muscles of your neck support your head and allow for motion. Any abnormalities, inflammation, or injury can cause neck pain or stiffness.

Many people experience neck pain or stiffness occasionally. In many cases, it’s due to poor posture or overuse. Sometimes, neck pain is caused by injury from a fall, contact sports, or whiplash.

Most of the time, neck pain isn’t a serious condition and can be relieved within a few days.

But in some cases, neck pain can indicate serious injury or illness and require a doctor’s care.

If you have neck pain that continues for more than a week, is severe, or is accompanied by other symptoms, seek medical attention immediately.

Causes

Neck pain is very common and most of us will have it at some point in our lives. Usually, neck pain is the result of holding your neck in the same position for too long. However, other things can also cause or contribute to neck pain, such as:

• worry or stress
• sleeping awkwardly
• an accident, which can cause whiplash
• a sprain or a strain
• a flare-up of cervical spondylosis; which can happen as the discs and joints in the spine age.

Many people develop a stiff and painful neck for no obvious reason. It may happen after sitting in a draught or after a minor twisting injury, for example while gardening. This is called non-specific neck pain. This is the most common type of neck pain and usually disappears after a few days, providing you keep gently moving your neck and rest when you need to.

Symptoms

The most common symptoms are:

Pain and stiffness

• You may feel pain in the middle or on either side of your neck, but it may also extend to the shoulder or to the upper chest.
• You may have pain or weakness in your arms.
• You may have tension headaches, where the pain can travel to the back of your head and sometimes into your ear or behind your eye.
• It may be painful to move your neck and your muscles may feel tight, especially if you’ve been sitting or sleeping in one position for a long time.
• You may notice that your neck won’t turn as far as it normally does, for example when you try to look over your shoulder while reversing the car.

If you have pain and stiffness in the neck that came on quickly, possibly overnight, and you have difficulty lifting both arms over your head, this could be a sign of a condition called polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR). This is an inflammatory condition of the muscles. It’s more common in people over the age of 65. If you think you have this condition, you should see a doctor as soon as possible.

Numbness or tingling

A nerve can become pinched when the muscles, bones or tissues surrounding it apply too much pressure. As a result, you may feel numbness, pins and needles or a tingling sensation that can be felt down your arm, sometimes right down to your fingers.

You’ll find that numbness and tingling will go away once the problem resolves itself. However, if your symptoms are severe, talk to your doctor; they may be able to prescribe drugs that target the pinched nerve, such as gabapentin or pregabalin.

Clicking and grating noises

You may hear or feel clicking or grating as you move your head. This is called crepitus, and it can be caused by air bubbles popping, or tissues and bones moving over each other, in the joint. Other joints often do this too, but noises from your neck usually seem louder because they’re happening closer to your ears. You may also find they’re more noticeable at night. While this is a common symptom and can sound alarming, it’s not serious.

Dizziness and blackouts

If you feel dizzy when looking up or turning your head, this may be due to pinching of the arteries that run alongside the spine, otherwise known as vertebral arteries. This can sometimes happen as a result of changes in the vertebrae. Pinching of these vertebral arteries can occasionally cause blackouts as the blood flow is temporarily reduced. However, blackouts can have other causes so it’s important to seek medical advice if this is happening to you.

Muscle spasms

Muscle spasms are the sudden stiffening of a muscle or groups of muscles in your body. Often there is no known cause and they can be very unpleasant. When it occurs in the neck it usually causes pain and stiffness down one side, which can make it difficult to turn your head.

It usually only lasts a few hours or days, although rarely it may continue for several weeks. You can try to ease the pain at home with gentle stretches, over-the-counter painkillers as well as heat or ice packs. People with muscle spasms report that applying heat is particularly soothing.

Diagnosis

Most neck problems can be diagnosed and treated based on your symptoms and a simple examination, and it’s unlikely that you’ll need any special tests. Occasionally, your doctor may ask you to have an x-ray, a blood test or an MRI scan to rule out other important causes of neck pain.