Pain in the back of the neck

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Figure: Muscles front and back, OpenStax, Tomáš Kebert and umimeto.org, CC BY-SA 4.0.

What does it feel like?

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See a GP or physio first if you have any of these
  • Neck pain after a serious accident
  • Neck pain with chest pain, breathlessness or sweating
  • Neck pain with fever, sweats or chills
  • Pins and needles or numbness with neck pain
  • Weakness in the arms or legs
  • New problems walking
  • A headache that came on suddenly and is extremely painful
  • Slurred or garbled speech, or difficulty speaking
  • Headache with vomiting, confusion, neck stiffness or changed vision
  • Neck pain or stiffness that does not go away after a few weeks

General information, not a diagnosis. Not reviewed by a physiotherapist. The pages the text was checked against are listed under each cause.