Cervicogenic headache treatment Edmonton

Cervicogenic headache treatment at our Edmonton clinic for head pain referred from the upper neck: side-locked, starting at the back of the head and spreading toward the eye or temple. Assessment separates it from migraine and checks for the features that need medical review first.

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What is a cervicogenic headache?

A cervicogenic headache is head pain referred from structures in the upper neck. The nerves supplying the top three cervical segments share a relay in the brainstem with the nerve that supplies the face and head, so a problem in the neck can be felt as a headache. It is typically one-sided, stays on the same side, starts at the back of the head or neck and spreads forward.

Cervicogenic Headache Assessment And Treatment At Vertex Physiotherapy

How Cervicogenic Headache Differs From Other Headaches

Headaches overlap, and people can have more than one kind. These features point toward the neck:

  • Side-locked — it stays on the same side rather than swapping between episodes
  • Starts in the neck or the back of the head and spreads toward the eye or temple
  • Provoked by sustained neck positions or by particular neck movements
  • Reduced neck movement, particularly rotation with the neck bent forward
  • Tenderness over the upper cervical joints, and pressing there may reproduce the familiar headache
  • Nausea, light sensitivity and visual aura are more typical of migraine, though mild nausea can occur here too

When a headache needs medical assessment first

Physiotherapy is not the right first stop for every headache. Seek medical assessment for any of these:

  • A sudden, severe headache reaching peak intensity within seconds to minutes
  • Headache with fever, neck stiffness and a rash
  • New neurological symptoms — weakness, slurred speech, double vision, difficulty swallowing
  • A headache pattern that has clearly changed, or a new headache after age 50
  • Headache after a significant head or neck injury

What Cervicogenic Headache Treatment Usually Involves

Assessment examines the upper cervical joints, the mobility of the neck and upper back, and the endurance of the deep neck muscles, and tries to reproduce and then ease your familiar headache.

Treatment combines hands-on work to the upper cervical segments with exercise for neck and shoulder blade control. In trials, that combination has done more than either part on its own, which is why the home exercise side is not optional.

Alongside that, the practical work: how your workstation sits, how long you hold positions, how you sleep, and what you do when one starts.

What to Know About Cervicogenic Headache After an Accident

Headache is one of the most common symptoms after a motor vehicle collision, and it may be cervicogenic, related to concussion, or both. The assessment and the funding route are both different in that case — see concussion after a collision and whiplash after a collision.

Common Questions About Cervicogenic Headache

It might be, and the two can coexist. Migraine is more often throbbing, comes with light and sound sensitivity or nausea, and is not usually locked to one side across episodes. If the picture is mixed, it is worth involving your physician as well.

Usually not. Degenerative changes in the neck are common in people without headaches, so imaging rarely identifies the source. The diagnosis is made clinically, by reproducing and easing the headache.

Many people notice a change in frequency or intensity within a few weeks. The exercise side is what tends to hold the change, so it usually continues well past the point where the headaches ease off.

Cervicogenic headache is one-sided, starts at the back of the head, is reproduced by pressing or moving the neck, and does not swap sides. Migraine has its own features: nausea, light sensitivity, throbbing. The assessment looks for those markers before treating the neck.

For many people they reduce a great deal in frequency and intensity, though promising a full stop would not be honest. What you should expect is a clear change within four to six weeks and a plan for keeping it, mostly through specific neck strength and posture work.

Yes. Alberta physiotherapists are direct-access, so you can book straight in. The assessment screens for the headache types that need a physician, and if yours is one of them you will be told and referred on rather than treated.

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Vertex Physiotherapy is at 6958 76 Ave NW #205, Edmonton, AB T6B 2R2. Call (825) 525-2852 or book online.

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Written by Vertex Physiotherapy · Reviewed by Bipin Pokhrel, Provisional Physiotherapist · Last updated September 2026