Sensorimotor Exercises and Neurodevelopmental Yoga in Chronic Neck Pain

Cervical Joint Position Error Test

Neck pain is an important public health problem with a high lifetime prevalence and
 frequently occurring in all industrialized countries. Clinical practice guidelines for
 chronic neck pain recommend conservative management. Conservative treatment includes many
 approaches such as endurance, stretching and strengthening exercises, manual therapy,
 proprioceptive exercises, pilates and yoga. In patients with chronic neck pain, atrophy of
 deep neck muscles, deterioration in fiber type ratio, muscle tenderness and decreased range
 of motion are observed. These problems cause poor cervical postural control system and thus
 impaired sense of proprioception, loss of balance, decreased eye movement and cervical muscle
 activity. Sensorimotor control of upright posture and head-eye movement relies on information
 from the vestibular, visual, and proprioceptive systems that assemble throughout the central
 nervous system.The cervical spine has an important role in providing proprioceptive input.
 This role is associated with an abundance of cervical mechanoreceptors. Recent studies have
 shown that proprioceptive training is associated with cervical joint position sense, joint
 range of motion, pain and disability. Also yoga combines physical exercises with breathing
 techniques and meditation and yoga is one of the most commonly used complementary treatments
 for neck pain.The aim of study is to determine the effectiveness of exercises for
 sensorimotor structure and yoga exercises with physical and meditative effects in individuals
 with chronic neck pain.