What are the symptoms of neck problems?

Pain

You may feel pain in the middle of your neck or on one side or the other. The pain may travel to the shoulder and shoulder blade or to the upper chest. In tension headaches the pain often travels to the back of the head and sometimes to the side of the head and behind the eye or even into the ear. If a nerve root is pinched, then as well as the pain you may have numbness or tingling that can be felt down the arm right to the fingers.

Stiffness

This is common. You may find it painful to move and your muscles feel tight. Stiffness is often worse after long periods of rest or after sitting in one position for a long time. You may also have muscle spasm or, in cervical spondylosis, you may lose movement because of the changes to the bones and discs.

Noisy joints

You may hear or feel clicking or grating (called 'crepitus') as you move your head. This is caused by roughened bony surfaces moving against each other or by ligaments rubbing against bone. The noises are often loudest at the top of the neck. This is a common symptom and can be upsetting.

Dizziness and blackouts

These can sometimes happen when bony changes in cervical spondylosis cause pinching of the vertebral artery. You may feel dizzy when looking up, or you may occasionally have blackouts.

Torticollis

Sometimes if you have neck pain you may also have muscle spasms that turn the head to one side. This is called torticollis. Although not very common, it is an unpleasant side-effect of neck pain. It usually lasts only a few hours or days, although rarely it may continue for several weeks.

Other symptoms

If you have long-lasting neck pain and stiffness, particularly if your sleep is disturbed, then you may feel excessively tired and this can cause depression.