The Source / A field guide to feeling better
Neck
The neck moves your head and carries nerves toward the shoulder, arm and hand. Symptoms can travel.
Can you point to it?
Choose the closest area.
Pick a point on the close-up, or choose from the list below. Each one covers what might be going on, the details that help at a visit, and the research behind it.
Put the symptoms in context
Where it hurts is a start, but it doesn’t settle the diagnosis. A neck exam weighs movement, strength, sensation and any injury history, and watches for signs that the symptoms need a medical workup first.
Follow the question
Explore neck
Each guide explains what the condition is, what the research shows and where it runs out, and when it calls for a different kind of care than ours. An exam is how we look for which one, if any, fits you.
- Condition guide
Neck pain
Stiffness, referred pain and nerve symptoms, and the questions our exam sets out to answer.
Understand this condition - Condition guide
Whiplash
What to watch for after a crash or any sudden jolt to the neck, and how recovery is checked.
Understand this condition - Condition guide
Headaches & migraines
The common headache patterns, what we look for at an exam, and the symptoms that need urgent care.
Understand this condition
Neck pain or whiplash: where to start
Neck pain that stays put and tingling that runs into your hand point to different problems. Our neck pain guide covers the assessment and the warning signs that need medical care. After a collision, start with whiplash, including when an injury needs medical evaluation.
Checking a blind spot, looking down at a phone, sleep, work: what makes the pain better or worse helps tell these problems apart. Numbness, tingling or weakness in an arm or hand matters too: our exam looks for signs of an irritated nerve. If you've had neck X-rays or an MRI, bring the reports. An image is one part of an assessment.
What counts as progress with neck pain?
Turning to check traffic, sleeping more comfortably or getting back to a work task can be meaningful goals. After the exam we go over what we found and build any plan around goals like those. The trial below compared spinal manipulation, medication, and home exercise with advice in adults with nonspecific neck pain of 2 to 12 weeks. It covers that group only.
Follow the evidence
Research, with context.
Selected published sources behind what we've written, each with what it found and what it can't tell us. We give you both halves because no paper can diagnose you or predict how your own care will go.
Spinal manipulation, medication, or home exercise with advice for acute and subacute neck pain: a randomized trial
272 adults with nonspecific neck pain lasting 2 to 12 weeks.
What it foundManipulation performed better than medication at several follow-ups, but there was no important pain difference between manipulation and home exercise with advice.
What it can't tell usTreatment was unblinded. The study doesn't cover every cause of neck pain, instability after trauma, or an unexplained neurological problem.
Publication details & citation
Bronfort et al. Spinal manipulation, medication, or home exercise with advice for acute and subacute neck pain: a randomized trial. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2012. DOI: 10.7326/0003-4819-156-1-201201030-00002.
Read the publication record
Our editorial policy explains how to read these sources and what our clinical-review labels mean.