Diagnosing Pain In The Neck

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Talk about a pain in the neck! One of the most common conditions in medicine is chronic neck pain. In fact, I am quite certain there are many people hearing this report who suffer the pain.

There are two major groups of people with chronic neck pain: those with posttraumatic issues and those with degenerative problems. The posttraumatic group includes trauma and whiplash.

Degenerative neck pain is often caused by herniated discs and arthritis. Of course treatment depends on the cause and once again depending on the cause, the results can be quite different.

One of the most important steps you can take to figuring out the cause of your neck pain and what to do about it is to actually think about what makes the pain worse. The other big step is to see your doctor to have it evaluated and let your doctor know about your detective work. The combination will help you get to the answer sooner rather than later.

Remember, there are many expensive tests and they can help with the diagnosis but they are not always the answer.

Reported By Dr. Brian McDonough, KYW Newsradio Medical Editor