Suboccipital Muscles, Forward Head Posture and Cervicogenic Dizziness

Physical therapists and physical therapist assistants who see patients reporting dizziness, neck pain or headache alongside poor head and neck alignment, and who want a clear account of what the cervical spine literature does and does not establish about cervicogenic dizziness.

Physical therapists and physical therapist assistants in outpatient orthopedic, neurologic and vestibular settings. Content is also relevant to clinicians managing chronic neck pain and headache. Physical therapist assistants participate under the direction and supervision of a physical therapist.

Intended audience

Physical Therapy

Level

Introductory

Delivery format

Online, asynchronous, self-paced course: interactive reading with audio or video, and a scored post-test.

Based on

Sung, Y.-H. Suboccipital Muscles, Forward Head Posture, and Cervicogenic Dizziness. Medicina 2022, 58, 1791. https://doi.org/10.3390/medicina58121791

Open access review article published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. Received 28 September 2022; accepted 1 December 2022; published 5 December 2022. The author reported no external funding and no conflict of interest.

This course reports what that review described and concluded. It does not add claims, treatment protocols or outcome data from other sources.

After completing this course, you will be able to:

1. Describe the structural features of the suboccipital muscles that the review links to head position sense, including muscle spindle density, fiber type makeup and their short, deep attachments.
2. Explain the four routes the review proposes from forward head posture to cervicogenic dizziness: upper cervical loading and instability, muscle structure and function change, myodural bridge tension, and trigger point activation.
3. State the review's conclusion about which patients reporting dizziness the author says warrant examination of suboccipital structure and function.

1. Start Here: how this course works and what you will get from it
2. The Podcast: Dizziness From the Neck — A Conversation (about nine minutes)
3. Dizziness That Does Not Come From the Inner Ear
4. How This Review Was Assembled
5. What the Suboccipital Muscles Are Built to Do
6. Four Routes From Forward Head Posture to Dizziness
7. What the Review Cannot Prove, and What It Could Mean in the Clinic
8. Key Takeaways
9. Post-Test and Course Evaluation

Quinn Millington, PT, DPT, ECS is the instructor of record: the licensed clinician who reviewed this course and signed off on it. The name and credentials print on the certificate.

Disclosures. This course was developed by The ConEd Solution, which has a financial interest in its sale. No outside funding or sponsorship was received. The instructor of record has no affiliation with the authors of the source publication or their institutions.

This course awards 0.5 contact hours (30 min). How you earn them:

1. Complete the course. Every lesson, in order.
2. Pass the post-test. Score 80% or higher. Retakes are allowed.
3. Complete the evaluation. A short form rating each learning objective and the course.
4. Download your certificate. It is issued on completion and stays available in My Account.

The episode time is its measured length. Reading, post-test and evaluation times are estimates.

This course is designed to satisfy the quality requirements state boards set for continuing education. Requirements vary by state, and confirming that a course fits your renewal is up to you. Each state’s own acceptance statement is in the credit panel on this page.

1. Sung, Y.-H. Suboccipital Muscles, Forward Head Posture, and Cervicogenic Dizziness. Medicina 2022, 58, 1791. https://doi.org/10.3390/medicina58121791
2. Open access review article published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. Received 28 September 2022; accepted 1 December 2022; published 5 December 2022. The author reported no external funding and no conflict of interest.
3. This course reports what that review described and concluded. It does not add claims, treatment protocols or outcome data from other sources.