Post- Concussion Syndrome/Mild Traumatic Brain Injuries and the NECK

So many of our clients who have been in car accidents or experienced a fall, concussion or high velocity injury, have sustained injuries to their neck joints and/or soft tissue. The symptoms experienced as a result of a neck injury can overlap with symptoms connected to concussion related impairments. It is critical to see a physiotherapist who is skilled at differentiating the source of your symptoms and impairments.

When injured, the neck muscles and joints can provide abnormal input from the muscle and joint receptors and this input can be mismatching with the other “inputs” (ie: vision, vestibular, sensation in body elsewhere related to position sense).

In addition to pain localized to the neck, symptoms related to neck injury can include:

-      headaches

-      dizziness

-      nausea

-      pain in the arm(s), shoulder blades, TMJ (jaw)

-      impaired balance

-      tinnitus

Your physiotherapist may also want to treat your neck as part of the vestibular, vision and balance integration as all of these systems are connected! There are many treatment options available based on the assessment findings.

Your physiotherapist can guide you through the neck protocol as appropriate (do not progress yourself!)