Scoliosis symptoms can range from mild to severe, and the larger the size of the unnatural spinal curve, the more noticeably it affects the body. Because scoliosis is progressive, its symptoms can also change over time. Common symptoms can include postural and mobility changes, back and nerve pain, and headaches are generally considered a secondary scoliosis symptom.

Scoliosis causes an unnatural lateral sideways curvature with rotation to develop, and while it mainly affects the spine, effects can be widespread. Scoliosis can cause headaches due to muscle tension, compressed nerves, and/or changes to the flow of cerebrospinal fluid in and around the brain.

Scoliosis can cause some unexpected effects, including tension headaches and migraines.

Scoliosis and Muscle Tension Headaches

Although scoliosis causes the spine to curve and rotate unnaturally, its effects can be felt throughout the body, including the spine’s immediate surroundings.

Scoliosis disrupts the overall symmetry of the body through postural changes and introducing uneven forces to the spine and body (1).

If the spine develops an unhealthy curvature, it’s no longer aligned and balanced, and the asymmetry can also affect the spine’s surrounding muscles (1).

The spine’s surrounding muscles are key to maintaining the spine’s healthy curves and alignment by providing crucial support and stability.

In fact, a key facet of nonsurgical scoliosis treatment is a customized scoliosis-specific exercise rehabilitation program to help restore strength and balance to the spine’s surrounding muscles (2).

If scoliosis causes asymmetrical posture, this can cause the spine’s surrounding muscles to become weak and unbalanced as the spine’s unnatural curve and twist can pull the back muscles in different directions (3).

A muscular imbalance is a common effect of scoliosis and can involve muscle tension, soreness, and painful spasms (3).

Muscle imbalances and tension in the upper back and neck can cause tension headaches; particularly in cases of cervical scoliosis, cervicogenic tension headaches can develop due to forward head posture (3, 4).

Scoliosis and Nerve Compression Headaches

Scoliosis patients who have stopped growing are more likely to experience nerve compression because scoliosis becomes compressive once skeletal maturity has been reached.

Compression is uneven pressure, and in addition to impacting the spine’s overall health and the health of its surrounding muscles, nerve health can also be impacted by scoliosis.

With 31 pairs of spinal nerves, one of the spine’s primary roles is protecting the spinal cord.

If the spine’s healthy curves are lost and uneven pressure is compressing the spinal cord, or a nerve root is compressed where it exits the spine and branches off throughout the body, a number of symptoms can develop, including nerve-compression headaches (4).

If scoliosis has caused cervical spine nerve compression, headaches and neck pain are common effects (4).

Scoliosis and Cerebrospinal Fluid Headaches

Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) protects the brain and spinal cord; its path starts in the brain’s ventricles and exits through the subarachnoid space to circulate around the brain and spinal cord, before it’s reabsorbed into the blood stream (6).

If the spine has an unnatural curvature, it can disrupt the flow of CSF between the brain and spinal cord, causing fluctuating levels in and around the brain and painful headaches and/or migraines.

Proper flow and CSF levels are important; it helps absorb shock from impact and mechanical stress, removes metabolic waste, delivers nutrients, and helps maintain the brain’s homeostasis (6).

Cerebrospinal fluid also reduces the head’s weight on the cervical spine by increasing its buoyancy, reducing mechanical stress experienced by the cervical spine (6).

Metabolic waste removal and nutrient delivery (glucose and proteins) helps keep the brain healthy (6).

Maintaining balance of the brain’s electrolytes, chemicals, and hormones is also connected to the flow of cerebrospinal fluid in and around the brain, so anything capable of disrupting that flow can cause a number of effects, including the development of headaches and migraines (6).

Scoliosis and Migraines

Scoliosis severity ranges widely, along with its potential effects, and as a progressive condition, the nature of scoliosis is to become more severe over time (1).

As progression occurs and scoliosis becomes more severe, its effects also increase, along with potential complications (1).

The longer scoliosis is left untreated, the more likely it is to cause escalating symptoms and related complications like migraines (8).

A migraine is more than a standard headache; a migraine comes with migraine specific symptoms such as severe pain (often concentrated to one side of the head), nausea, vomiting, numbness, visual disturbances, and sensitivity to light and sound (7).

Migraines are neurological in nature, are more severe than regular headaches, and can become chronic and debilitating (7).

In the context of scoliosis, migraines are most closely associated with severe scoliosis and disruptions to the flow of cerebrospinal fluid (8).

Scoliosis can cause a myriad of symptoms to develop, and the best way to minimize the potential symptoms and complications of scoliosis is a proactive and customized treatment plan.

Scoliosis Treatment for Headache Relief

When it comes to scoliosis symptom relief, the best way to reach long-term improvement is through addressing the underlying cause of the related symptoms: the scoliosis itself.

Addressing symptoms of scoliosis is not the same as addressing the scoliosis itself, and the underlying cause of scoliosis-related headaches is the spine’s misalignment and uneven forces being introduced to the body (1).

So to impact headaches and migraines caused by scoliosis, the scoliosis itself needs to be reduced and improved, and remember, because scoliosis is progressive, even patients who don’t struggle with noticeable symptoms and headaches at the onset can experience progression and increasing effects over time (1).

Here at ScoliCare, the focus is proactive nonsurgical scoliosis treatment that works towards restoring the spine’s alignment, support, and stability as this will not only improve spinal health, but also the spine’s surrounding muscle and nerve health.

In addition, if scoliosis is reduced and the spine’s alignment is improved, the body’s 3D postural alignment can also improve.

Because treatment plans are fully customized around a number of key variables, no two plans are the same, and treatment disciplines are apportioned accordingly.

Nonsurgical Scoliosis Treatment Disciplines

Nonsurgical scoliosis treatment integrates a number of treatment modalities from scoliosis-specific chiropractic care to a customized scoliosis-specific exercise rehabilitation program: ScoliBalance® (9).

ScoliBalance® combines the best of what scoliosis-specific established scoliosis-specific exercise-based treatment programs like the Schroth Method and the Scientific Exercise Approach to Scoliosis (SEAS) with what chiropractic and exercise rehabilitation has to offer (9).

Corrective bracing can also be applied to further improve the spine’s position and body posture, and is a regular facet of childhood scoliosis treatment (9).

The ScoliBrace® is a custom 3-dimensional scoliosis brace that’s evidence-based and customized to address the specifics of a patient’s posture, scoliosis type, and severity (9).

The ScoliBrace® individualizes potential corrective results through the use of an overcorrective Mirror Image® approach to improve spinal alignment and balance through spinal coupling, and as the spine is held in an overcorrective position in the brace, the brain and body are being retrained together to maintain this position out of the brace (9). This approach is best adopted for adolescents. The brace design is adapted and modified to suit a more symmetrical design for adults. 

So thinking back to how scoliosis can cause headaches and/or migraines (muscle tension, nerve compression, and cerebrospinal fluid irregularities), if scoliosis treatment improves muscle strength and balance, pressure on affected nerves is relieved, and the spine’s correction improves the flow of CSF in and around the brain, headaches and migraines may be improved and/or eliminated.

Conclusion

So does scoliosis cause headaches? Scoliosis is associated with a number of symptoms, headaches and migraines included.

While headaches and migraines aren’t generally considered primary symptoms of scoliosis, they do occur and are more closely associated with severe and untreated scoliosis.

Scoliosis can cause headaches and migraines due to muscle tension, compressed nerves, and/or cerebrospinal fluid irregularities; however, when treated proactively, scoliosis can be highly treatable, and in many cases, a number of potential symptoms and complications may be avoidable.

It’s also important for scoliosis patients to understand the progressive nature of scoliosis; for those who don’t initially experience headaches and start to, this can be a sign that progression is occurring and treatment needs are becoming more urgent.

All severity levels of scoliosis can benefit from treatment, and in terms of potential treatment efficacy, the sooner treatment is started, the better.

References:

1. Lenz, M., Oikonomidis, S., Harland, A. et al. Scoliosis and Prognosis—a systematic review regarding patient-specific and radiological predictive factors for curve progression. Eur Spine J 30, 1813–1822 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00586-021-06817-0
2. Romano, M., Negrini, A., Parzini, S. et al. SEAS (Scientific Exercises Approach to Scoliosis): a modern and effective evidence based approach to physiotherapic specific scoliosis exercises. Scoliosis 10, 3 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13013-014-0027-2Shah
3. Fidler MW, Jowett RL. Muscle imbalance in the aetiology of scoliosis. J Bone Joint Surg Br. 1976 May;58(2):200-1. doi: 10.1302/0301-620X.58B2.932082. PMID: 932082.
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6. Margetis K, Baker S. Physiology, Cerebral Spinal Fluid. [Updated 2025 Aug 9]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2025 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK519007/
7. Gupta J, Gaurkar SS. Migraine: An Underestimated Neurological Condition Affecting Billions. Cureus. 2022 Aug 24;14(8):e28347. doi: 10.7759/cureus.28347. PMID: 36168353; PMCID: PMC9506374
8. Uneri A, Polat S, Aydingoz O, Bursali A. Migraine vestibulopathy in three families with idiopathic scoliosis: a case series. Cases J. 2009 Dec 21;2:9367. doi: 10.1186/1757-1626-2-9367. PMID: 20062612; PMCID: PMC2804012
9. Marchese, R., Du Plessis, J., Pooke, T., & McAviney, J. (2024). The Improvement of Trunk Muscle Endurance in Adolescents with Idiopathic Scoliosis Treated with ScoliBrace® and the ScoliBalance® Exercise Approach. Journal of Clinical Medicine, 13(3), 653. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm13030653