People who have a stiff neck often suffer from non-specific neck pain. This means that there is no medically demonstrable reason or 'damage' to structures in the cervical spine that explains the complaints someone experiences. Less commonly, the stiff neck is caused by trauma or specific neck pain.
The normal recovery course of a stiff neck is that people experience a decrease in pain and/or an increase in activities within 6 weeks. If this is not the case, we speak of a deviating course. We also speak of an abnormal course when someone has recurrent neck pain.
The stiff neck that people experience can therefore have various causes of complaints. Muscle tension, reduced mobility of joints in the cervical and/or thoracic spine, reduced mobility in the shoulders or reduced motor control (reduced coordination stability) of the cervical spine. Stress or too little exercise also often plays a role.
It is important to make a good analysis of someone's daily functioning, to examine the posture and moving functioning of muscles and joints.