Stiff person spectrum disorder

What it is

A rare neurological disorder comprising fluctuating trunk and limb stiffness, painful muscle spasms, task-specific phobia related to walking, an exaggerated startle response, and often ankylosing deformities such as fixed lumbar hyperlordosis.

Key facts

Prevalence

1-9 / 1 000 000 (Europe)

Age of onset

Adolescent, Adult, Childhood, Elderly, Infancy

Inheritance

Not applicable

Classified as

Disease

Prevalence figures describe populations, not individuals, and are often estimates from a single study. Where the figure is an incidence or a birth prevalence, it says so.

Signs and symptoms

These ranges are how often a sign appears across everyone diagnosed, not a prediction for one person — most people have some of these and not others. Orphanet also records findings that are specifically absent in this disease; those are in the data but not listed here.

ICD-10 codes

ICD-10 has no distinct code for most rare diseases, so many are filed under the nearest available one. A shared code identifies the group, not this disease — the ORPHAcode above is what identifies it.

Related health topics

Reached through the ICD-10 categories this disease is filed under, so these describe the broader group rather than this disease specifically.

Cross-references