Easing chronic neck pain

Neck pain is a fairly common ailment with many causes, including injury, arthritis, and fibromyalgia. Usually it goes away on its own in a relatively short time, but sometimes it becomes chronic. Now some Canadian researchers have found that sleeping with a neck support pillow and doing neck exercises can help ease chronic neck pain.

Researchers from the University of Western Ontario carried out a study to investigate the effects of several different treatment methods on patients with chronic neck pain. They recruited 151 patients with chronic neck pain, and randomly assigned each to one of four treatment groups:

1. hot or cold packs and massage
2. sleeping with a neck support pillow, plus hot or cold packs and massage
3. active neck exercises, plus hot or cold packs and massage
4. combined exercise, plus sleeping neck with a support pillow, plus the placebo

Participants who did the neck exercises were taught how to do them correctly by physical therapists. Participants were treated by physical therapists over a 6 week period.

Their progress was assessed at 0, 3, 6, 12, 24 weeks, and 12 months, with the 12 week assessment being the primary target for evaluation. Those who assessed the patients didn't know which treatments they had been given.

By the 12th week of the study, only those who used the contour neck support pillow and the exercises reported that their neck pain was significantly improved. There was no significant improvement among the other three groups.

Writing about their study in the Journal of Rheumatology, the research team concluded that, "Treatment by physiotherapists trained to teach both exercises and the use of a neck support pillow achieved the most favorable benefit for participants with chronic neck pain; either strategy alone was not more effective than a control regimen."

So, if you suffer from chronic neck pain, you might want to consider seeing your doctor about getting into a physical therapy program -- and get a contour neck support pillow, too.

Source: Helewa, A., Goldsmith, C., Smythe, H., Lee, P., Obright, K., & Stitt, L. (2007). Effect of therapeutic exercise and sleeping neck support on patients with chronic neck pain: a randomized clinical trial. Journal of Rheumatology, Vol. 34, pp. 151-158.