Manual Therapy and Augmented Exercise for Neck Pain

The purpose of this study is to determine if specific neck exercises intended to augment
specific manual therapy treatments result in better outcomes than standard neck exercises in
people with neck pain. Clinical tests and measurements as well as patient questionnaires
will be completed and compared between groups.

A secondary purpose is to determine if self report of activity is correlated with functional
improvements. We hypothesize that a specifically applied home exercise that augments the
effects of the manual therapy intervention will lead to improvements in outcomes in patients
with neck pain. We hypothesize that higher reports of self activity will be correlated with
improvements in outcomes.

Inclusion Criteria:

- Subjects with complaint of neck pain, neck motion limitations, pain at end-range neck
ROM, limited cervical/cervical and thoracic joint mobility, neck pain with manual
segmental examination

Exclusion Criteria:

- The presence of any red flags (i.e. tumor, metabolic diseases, rheumatoid arthritis,
osteoporosis, prolonged history of steroid use, signs and symptoms of vertebrobasilar
insufficiency, etc.), use of blood thinners, whiplash injury in the past 6 weeks,
evidence of central nervous system involvement (such as hyperreflexia, sensory
disturbances in the hands, unsteadiness during walking, etc.), history of spinal
surgery, workers compensation or pending legal action regarding their neck pain,
insufficient English language skills to complete questionnaires, unable to comply
with schedule