What Causes Neck Spasm? What are the Symptoms of Neck Spasm?

Physical therapy and rehabilitation specialist Prof. Dr. Turan Uslu gave information about the subject. Muscle spasm is involuntary muscle tension in the body. It usually causes severe pain. This pain can then last for minutes, hours, or days until the muscle relaxes and the spasm subsides. Neck spasm symptoms.

Spasms can occur in any part of the body where there is muscle. Our neck is the anatomical region where neck muscle spasm is most common.

Causes of neck spasms

There are many possible causes of neck spasms.

• stretching your neck during exercise
• carrying something heavy with one or both of your arms
• putting a heavy bag or too much weight on one of your shoulders
• unsuitable positions and holding them for long periods of time, such as squeezing a phone between your shoulder and ear, staying in the same position for hours and sleeping in the wrong position

Other common causes of neck spasms include:

• emotional stress
• cervical pondylosis, a type of arthritis that can affect the spine
• crooked posture or keeping the head tilted forward, poor posture
• cervical disc herniation and degenerative disc disease
• thirst, which can cause muscle cramps and spasms
• temporomandibular joint diseases affecting the jaw and surrounding muscles

Much less common but more serious causes of neck spasms include:

• meningitis, serious infections of the brain and spinal cord that cause edema
• ankylosingpondylitis, a condition that causes the vertebrae in the spine to fuse
• spasmodictorticollis, also known as cervical dystonia
• spinal stenosis, which occurs when the spinal canal in the spine is narrow
• trauma from accidents or falls
• spinal injury, whiplash injuries

neck spasm symptoms

Neck spasm is a sudden, sharp pain in one or more parts of your neck, deep within the muscle tissue. The affected muscle may feel stiff or tight. Moving the neck can be painful. The pain may spread to your head, shoulders and arms, and between your shoulder blades.