Neck treatment may prove to be unnecessary and expensive for many migraine sufferers, University of Queensland (UQ), Australia research has revealed.

More than half of sufferers with migraine and neck pain were found to have good neck function in a study led by UQ School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences PhD candidate Zhiqi Liang, indicating the problem lay elsewhere.

“Neck pain in these individuals was likely due to their migraine referring pain to the neck area,” Liang said.

“This is a world-first study providing definitive evidence that neck pain in some migraine sufferers stems solely from the migraine itself, whereas others have neck pain from joints and muscles.”

Liang said the findings emphasised the need for physical assessment by a skilled physiotherapist to determine if there were underlying musculoskeletal issues.

The next step for the research is to better understand the relationship between neck dysfunction and migraines.

“Improved understanding of the mechanisms will help us direct the correct treatments to the appropriate patients,” Liang said.