Rare diseases · Sign or symptom
Spasticity
Involuntary muscle stiffness, contraction, or spasm
HP:0001257
What it means
A motor disorder characterized by a velocity-dependent increase in tonic stretch reflexes with increased muscle tone, exaggerated (hyperexcitable) tendon reflexes.
Rare diseases that can present with this260
Very common80–99%
64- 3-methylglutaconic aciduria type 4
- Adult polyglucosan body disease
- Aicardi-Goutières syndrome
- Alexander disease
- Alpha-N-acetylgalactosaminidase deficiency
- Alpha-N-acetylgalactosaminidase deficiency type 1
- Amelocerebrohypohidrotic syndrome
- Autosomal recessive cerebellar ataxia with late-onset spasticity
- Autosomal recessive spastic paraplegia type 24
- Autosomal recessive spastic paraplegia type 57
- Autosomal recessive spastic paraplegia type 75
- Autosomal recessive spastic paraplegia type 9B
- Bonnemann-Meinecke-Reich syndrome
- Classic glucose transporter type 1 deficiency syndrome
- Corpus callosum agenesis-abnormal genitalia syndrome
- Desmosterolosis
- Early-onset progressive diffuse brain atrophy-microcephaly-muscle weakness-optic atrophy syndrome
- Encephalopathy due to sulfite oxidase deficiency
- Free sialic acid storage disease
- Gaucher disease type 2
- Hereditary hyperekplexia
- Hydrocephalus with stenosis of the aqueduct of Sylvius
- Infantile Krabbe disease
- Infantile-onset ascending hereditary spastic paralysis
- Intellectual disability-eye abnormalities-microcephaly-peripheral spasticity syndrome
- Intellectual disability-spasticity-ectrodactyly syndrome
- Juvenile primary lateral sclerosis
- Krabbe disease
- L1 syndrome
- Lesch-Nyhan syndrome
- Locked-in syndrome
- Macrocephaly-spastic paraplegia-dysmorphism syndrome
- Menkes disease
- Microcephalic osteodysplastic primordial dwarfism types I and III
- Microcephaly-brain defect-spasticity-hypernatremia syndrome
- Micro syndrome
- Mitochondrial membrane protein-associated neurodegeneration
- Multiple mitochondrial dysfunctions syndrome type 5
- Mutilating hereditary sensory neuropathy with spastic paraplegia
- Neuhauser-Eichner-Opitz syndrome
- N syndrome
- Pantothenate kinase-associated neurodegeneration
- Paraplegia-intellectual disability-hyperkeratosis syndrome
- Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease
- Peripheral demyelinating neuropathy-central dysmyelinating leukodystrophy-Waardenburg syndrome-Hirschsprung disease
- Porencephaly
- Primary lateral sclerosis
- Pseudo-TORCH syndrome type 1
- Ravine syndrome
- Schizencephaly
- Short stature-wormian bones-dextrocardia syndrome
- Sjögren-Larsson syndrome
- Spastic paraplegia-facial-cutaneous lesions syndrome
- Spastic paraplegia-glaucoma-intellectual disability syndrome
- Spastic paraplegia-nephritis-deafness syndrome
- Spastic paraplegia type 2
- Sporadic fetal brain disruption sequence
- Symmetrical thalamic calcifications
- Weaver syndrome
- W syndrome
- Xeroderma pigmentosum-Cockayne syndrome complex
- X-linked neurodegenerative syndrome, Hamel type
- X-linked spasticity-intellectual disability-epilepsy syndrome
- Xp21deletion syndrome
Common30–79%
16- 3-methylglutaconic aciduria-neonatal cataract-neurologic involvement-congenital neutropenia syndrome
- 3-phosphoglycerate dehydrogenase deficiency, infantile/juvenile form
- Adrenomyeloneuropathy
- Adult Krabbe disease
- Adult-onset autosomal dominant leukodystrophy
- Aicardi syndrome
- Alexander disease type II
- Allan-Herndon-Dudley syndrome
- Alobar holoprosencephaly
- Alpers-Huttenlocher syndrome
- Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
- ANK3-related intellectual disability-sleep disturbance syndrome
- Ataxia-telangiectasia
- Atypical pantothenate kinase-associated neurodegeneration
- Atypical Rett syndrome
- Autosomal dominant spastic paraplegia type 4
The range is how often this sign appears among people diagnosed with each disease — it is not a probability of having any of them. Many of these signs also occur in common, non-rare conditions, and Orphanet separately records 1 disease where this sign is specifically absent. A sign on this page is a conversation to have with a clinician, not a conclusion.
Part of the broader category
Also called: Muscle spasticity · Muscular spasticity
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Start free with EleplanThis page uses the Human Phenotype Ontology (2026-06-23) — Human Phenotype Ontology Consortium, hpo.jax.org. Disease associations from Orphanet (INSERM), CC BY 4.0. Content is educational and is not medical advice.