Symptoms
MS spasticity can cause any muscle in your body to feel difficult to move, tight, stiff and heavy. It is a result of damage along the nerves of the brain and spinal cord that control movement.
Causes
A spasm is a sudden, involuntary jerk or muscle movement. Changing positions or making sudden movements can bring on a spasm. So can extreme temperatures or tight clothing. About 80 percent of people with multiple sclerosis (MS) have experienced spasticity.
Prevention
MS spasticity medications can have significant side effects, including drowsiness, difficulty sleeping, muscle weakness, and dizziness. Botulinum toxin (Botox injection) is sometimes used as a local muscle relaxant for spasticity.
Complications
So can extreme temperatures or tight clothing. About 80 percent of people with multiple sclerosis (MS) have experienced spasticity. For some, it’s an infrequent symptom that passes quickly. For others, it can be unpredictable and painful. Are there different kinds of spasticity?
What is MS spasticity and how is it treated?
What is a spasm in MS?
What are the possible side effects of MS spasticity medications?
How common is spasticity in multiple sclerosis?
How is MS spasticity treated?
Baclofen is the most commonly prescribed medication to treat spasticity in MS and is usually very effective. It may be taken orally, or for individuals with more severe spasticity, given via an implanted pump that provides the medicine directly into the spinal fluid.
How can I improve my MS spasticity?
Physical therapy, medications, surgery, or a mix of these treatments can ease spasticity when you have MS. To decide the best way to help you, your doctors will think about your overall health, how severe your symptoms are, and: Does the condition keep you from doing everyday tasks?
Can spasticity be treated?
Spasticity in children can result in growth problems, painful and deformed joints and disability. Spasticity treatment requires a team approach and may involve a combination of exercise, physical therapy, medication or surgery, such as rhizotomy.
How do you treat spasticity and spasms?
Casting or bracing: prevents involuntary spasms and reduces tightening of the muscles. Oral Medications: oral medications are used in combination with other therapies or medications, such as physical or occupational therapy. Oral medications are only used if symptoms interfere with daily functioning or sleep.
What are the best exercises for spasticity?
8 Exercises for Spasticity After a StrokeShifting your weight.Shoulder blade protraction.Ball squeeze.Ball pinch.Wrist curl.Supported reach and grasp.Side lying hip flexion.Knee extensions.
Why is spasticity worse at night?
Spasticity is one of the most common MS symptoms, and often feels worse at night. This is because it can be aggravated by reduced movement, tight muscles and pain from other symptoms.
What kind of doctor treats spasticity?
While your primary doctor will stay play a vital role in your preventive healthcare, you may need to see a neurologist to help treat spasticity. This type of medical doctor specializes in injuries and diseases of both the spinal cord and brain, such as MS, cerebral palsy, and stroke.
Which drugs are used to treat spasticity select all that apply?
Medications used in the treatment of spasticity include the following:Skeletal muscle relaxants (dantrolene sodium, baclofen)Benzodiazepines (diazepam)Alpha2-adrenergic agonists (clonidine, tizanidine)Botulinum toxins (onabotulinumtoxinA, abobotulinumtoxinA, incobotulinumtoxinA)
Is heat good for spasticity?
In more persistent injuries like muscle spasms, heat is often the remedy. Applying heat to muscle spasms will help relax the spasm. On an acute injury, like a sprain or fracture where swelling or inflammation is apparent, then ice is usually your first step within 24-36 hours of being injured.
What is the best muscle relaxer for MS?
Baclofen is a skeletal muscle relaxant used as a first-line treatment for spasticity in patients with MS. It can effectively relieve spasms and has modest effects in improving performance. Intrathecal baclofen via an implanted pump can be effective against spasticity in suitable patients.
What does MS spasticity feel like?
It is one of the more common symptoms of MS. Spasticity may be as mild as the feeling of tightness of muscles or may be so severe as to produce painful, uncontrollable spasms of extremities, usually of the legs. Spasticity may also produce feelings of pain or tightness in and around joints, and can cause low back pain.
Does spasticity get worse over time?
These symptoms of severe spasticity can worsen gradually over time and lead to loss of movement control, muscle weakness, increased care needs, and even sexual dysfunction. Spasticity may occur or worsen because of other conditions (like constipation or infection) or in stressful situations.
How Is MS Spasticity Treated?
These include physical therapy, medication, surgery, and lifestyle changes. Talk to your doctor about which options would work best for you.
What is spasms in MS?
Spasticity is one of the most common — and challenging — symptoms of multiple sclerosis (MS). According to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, an estimated 80 percent of people with MS have spasticity, involuntary muscle spasms or stiffness that interfere with normal movement.
What Does MS Spasticity Feel Like?
When your arms or legs don’t work properly — or your body acts in painful, unpredictable ways — it can be debilitating. Members of MyMSTeam who suffer from spasticity describe the experience:
What Causes MS Spasticity?
Spasticity is caused by a deficiency or loss of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), a neurotransmitter that calms the nervous system by inhibiting certain brain signals. When there’s not enough GABA to regulate activity, the nervous system becomes overexcited. In the case of MS, the nervous system sends the wrong signals to the muscles, causing spasms.
Why do muscles contract when you have MS?
In normal movement, some muscles relax while others contract. With MS, damage to nerves in the brain or spinal cord can disrupt this action, causing many muscles to contract at once — and resist being stretched. This change in the motor system is like a “tug of war between your own muscles,” Dr. Boster told MyMSTeam.
How to diagnose spasticity?
To diagnose spasticity, a neurologist will take a medical history and conduct a physical examination. They may order magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to assess the severity. Early diagnosis of spasticity is critical. Untreated, spasticity can lead to painful and permanently frozen joints (contractures), pressure sores on the skin, and disabling muscle tightness that may only be relieved by surgery.
What are the two types of spasticity?
There are two types of MS-related spasticity. In flexor spasticity, contractions cause arms and legs to bend, but not easily straighten. In extensor spasticity, contractions cause arms and legs to lock straight and not bend at all.
How to treat spasms in the body?
Physical therapy: This usually involves stretching—either passively (someone stretches your limbs for you) or actively (you stretch your muscles)—or hydrotherapy (exercising in water). You can also learn how to maintain good posture, an important element in minimizing spasticity symptoms.
How to reduce spasticity?
Managing your triggers, stretching, and maintaining good posture can help you minimize your spasticity symptoms enough that you may not even need medication.
What does it mean when your muscles are spasming?
At some point in the course of their disease, the majority of people with multiple sclerosis (MS) experience spasticity, a term that describes an increase in your muscle tone. While that may sound like a good thing if you're looking to tone up, what it really means is that your muscles don't relax as much or as easily as they should, resulting in involuntary muscle spasms. Because of this, spasticity affects your movement, making it a motor symptom rather than a sensory symptom like pain or numbness. 1
Why does my muscle tone increase with MS?
Like most other MS symptoms, spasticity is primarily caused by demyelination, which in this case increases your muscle tone. 5 Because of slow or interrupted nerve impulses, your muscles may respond by not relaxing as quickly as they should, tightening involuntarily, or staying contracted for long periods of time or even constantly.
What are the different types of muscle spasms?
Types of Spasms. There are several kinds of muscle spasms that can occur in MS, including: 3 . Extensor spasms: These occur when a limb, usually your leg, stiffens and you can't bend the joint, which makes the limb jerk away from your body.
Where does spasticity occur?
Though it can occur in any muscle in your body, spasticity tends to most often affect the legs. You may also experience it in your arms, the muscles in your back and trunk, and near or in your joints. Spasticity also tends to be asymmetrical, meaning you may notice that it's worse or happens more often on one side of your body than the other.
What is a flexor spasm?
Flexor spasms: With these spasms, your limbs bend (contract) toward your body. This type of spasm almost always affects your legs, especially the hamstrings or hip flexors.
How to treat spasticity?
Spasticity and muscle tightness is commonly treated with medications, physical and occupational therapy. Because spasticity varies so much from person to person, it must be treated on an individual basis and demands a true partnership between the person with MS and his or her healthcare team (e.g. physician, nurse, physician assistant, physical therapist and occupational therapist). Left untreated, spasticity can lead to serious complications, including contractures (frozen or immobilized joints) and pressure sores. Since these complications also act as spasticity triggers, they can set off a dangerous escalation of symptoms.
Why is spasticity important?
The spasticity gives their legs some rigidity, making it easier for them to stand, transfer, or walk. The goal of treatment for these individuals is to relieve the spasticity sufficiently to ensure comfort and prevent complications, without taking away the rigidity they need to function.
What does it mean when your legs are spastic?
Spasticity refers to feelings of stiffness and a wide range of involuntary muscle spas ms (sustained muscle contractions or sudden movements). It is one of the more common symptoms of MS. Spasticity may be as mild as the feeling of tightness of muscles or may be so severe as to produce painful, uncontrollable spasms of extremities, usually of the legs. Spasticity may also produce feelings of pain or tightness in and around joints, and can cause low back pain. Although spasticity can occur in any limb, it is much more common in the legs.
Can spasticity cause low back pain?
Spasticity may also produce feelings of pain or tightness in and around joints, and can cause low back pain. Although spasticity can occur in any limb, it is much more common in the legs. In flexor spasticity the muscles are so tight that the limbs are bent and difficult to straighten.
What is spasm in MS?
A spasm is a sudden, involuntary jerk or muscle movement. Changing positions or making sudden movements can bring on a spasm. So can extreme temperatures or tight clothing. About 80 percent of people with multiple sclerosis (MS) have experienced spasticity. For some, it’s an infrequent symptom that passes quickly.
What are the two most common types of spasticity in MS?
These are the two most common types of spasticity in MS: Flexor spasticity: This type affects the muscles on the backs of your upper legs (hamstrings) or the top of your upper thighs (hip flexors). It’s an involuntary bending of the knees and hips toward your chest. Extensor spasticity: This type has to do with the muscles on the front (quadriceps) ...
How to relieve muscle pain?
The goal is to relieve symptoms like muscle contractions and pain. Easing symptoms should improve motor skills and your ability to move freely. Your doctor will probably start out by suggesting simple stretching and other exercises, which may include: yoga. progressive muscle relaxation.
What is the best treatment for spasticity?
Physical and occupational therapy for spasticity. Whether you use medication or not, it’s important to incorporate movement into your treatment plan. Even if you plan to exercise on your own, it might be a good idea to work with a physical therapist first.
Can you take medication for spasticity?
Medications can be used to treat MS-related spasticity. The goal of medication is to lessen muscle stiffness without weakening the muscle to the point where you can’t use it. Whatever medication you choose you’ll probably start with a low dose. It can be gradually increased until you find the dose that works.
Is spasticity a last resort?
Surgeries for spasticity. Because surgery always carries some risk, it’s usually a last resort. Surgery for spasticity involves cutting tendons or nerve roots to relax stiff muscles. This is generally effective in treating spasticity, but it’s irreversible.
Can MS cause spasms in arms?
You can experience one or both types. They’re treated the same way. You can also experience spasticity in your arms, but it’s not as common in people with MS.
How to manage MS spasticity?
MS spasticity can be managed through various treatment options which will leave you feeling stronger , more confident and better coordinated . These treatments will also help with other MS symptoms, such as reducing your fatigue so that movement requires less effort.
How to reduce spasticity?
If you incorporate exercise and stretches into your daily routine and follow an evidence-based OMS lifestyle you may be able to reduce the effects of spasticity without needing medication. But many people with MS use medication to help improve their symptoms, such as Baclofen or CBD oil.
What is the difference between spasticity and spasms?
Spasticity makes your muscles feel stiff, heavy and difficult to move, whereas a spasm is a sudden involuntary tightening or contraction of the muscle which makes the limb move and jerk. These MS symptoms can affect walking and cause falls.
What causes spasticity and spasms?
Muscle tone is the level of tension to movement in a muscle which allows you to move your limbs or hold a position. For example, when you bend your arm, you are relaxing the triceps muscle at the back and therefore reducing the tone, and then you are tightening the biceps muscle at the front which increases the tone.
Why is my muscle so stiff?
This happens because the normal nerve signals between the brain and muscles are interrupted by MS. This causes the muscle to remain short and tight which makes it stiff and difficult to move. A contracture is a limb which is fixed in one position.
Why does MS make my body feel so heavy?
It is a result of damage along the nerves of the brain and spinal cord that control movement.
What is aquatic therapy?
Aquatic therapy, such as gentle exercises in a swimming pool. The natural buoyancy of the water allows you to exercise without as much effort.
What percentage of MS patients have spasms?
Spasticity and Its Treatments. The National Multiple Sclerosis Society reports that approximately 80 percent of MS patients experience muscle spasticity. Spasticity is experienced as muscle stiffness in the legs, arms, back, buttocks, and groin, with or without pain. It can also manifest as a spasm, where muscles “jump” in a sometimes visible ...
How to manage spasticity?
Despite the challenges, most people find a combination of spasticity treatments that suit the degree to which it affects their daily lives. It is generally easier to manage spasticity in the earlier stages of MS and then becomes more challenging with disease progression. Mild spasticity that once responded well to daily yoga might advance well beyond the limitations of stretching and require medication, massage, exercise, and any combination of approaches. The only way to know which methods work best for you is to try them out, report the results to your neurologist, and tweak it according to your needs. Other than fatigue, spasticity is one of the most troubling symptoms and can, over time, restrict your body’s ability to move safely and predictably.
How to reduce muscle stiffness?
Stretching, exercise, and massage. Medical professionals agree that stretching is a necessary part of treating muscle stiffness. According to Dr. Ken Seaman, PT, MA, DPT, daily stretching maintains range of motion, something that can be lost over time and eventually become irreversible without surgical intervention.
What are some medications that can be used to relax muscles?
Prescription muscle relaxants. Some treatments are long-established, inexpensive oral generic drugs such as baclofen, diazepam, dantrolene, and tizanidine. Rxlist.com lists these side effects some people might experience:
Can multiple sclerosis cause spasms?
Though these drugs are generally well-tolerated, the body can build up a resistance and need a higher and higher dose over time. Multiple sclerosis patients’ spasticity can also worsen over time, requiring an increased dose to keep up with the stiffness and cramping.
Can spasticity be a sign of fatigue?
Other than fatigue, spasticity is one of the most troubling symptoms and can, over time, restrict your body’s ability to move safely and predictably. For more information about treatment options, see the reference section below. By providing your email address, you are agreeing to our privacy policy.
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What is the treatment for spasticity?
Spasticity can range from relatively mild to quite severe, and treatment is approached in a step-wise fashion. Rehabilitative PT: stretching, gait assessment, and balance training, if needed. Oral medications: baclofen, tizanidine, dantrolene, clonazepam, diazepam. Intrathecal baclofen pump.
Why does spasm worsen?
Cold weather is one of the most common precipitating factors for worsening spasticity. Spasticity can also be worsened by noxious stimuli including full bladder, full bowel, pressure sores and pain. Some degree of spasticity may be required to support weakened extremities and promote functional mobility.
Does spasticity affect sexual activity?
Psychosocial Implication. Spasticity can increase fatigue and interfere with functioning at home and at work. Spasticity can interfere with sexual activity and comfort. Oral medications may increase fatigue and weakness.
How to treat MS spasticity?
Most of the time, a physical therapist will start treating MS spasticity with a basic physical therapy stretchingprogram. The goal is to lengthen your muscles to ease the condition. An occupational therapist may recommend different tools, like splints, casts, or braces, to keep up your range of motion and flexibility.
How to help MS patients with spasticity?
Physical therapy, medications, surgery, or a mix of these treatments can ease spasticity when you have MS. To decide the best way to help you, your doctors will think about your overall health, how severe your symptoms are, and:
What Causes Spasticity?
Spasticity happens because of an imbalance in the electrical signals coming from the brain and spinal cord, often when multiple sclerosis has damaged the nerves there. This unevenness makes your muscles contract on their own and makes them tense.
How does spasticity feel?
You might feel spasticity either as stiffness that doesn’t go away or as movements you can’t control that come and go, especially at night. It can feel like a muscle tightening, or it can be very painful. Spasticity also can make you ache or feel tight in and around your joints and low back. How you feel can vary depending on your position, posture, and how relaxed you are.
What is the best medicine for spasticity?
Medications for Spasticity. The most common medications to treat the condition include the muscle relaxants baclofen (Ozobax) and tizanidine(Zanaflex). Another option is diazepam(Valium), which can help you sleep if nighttime spasms keep you awake.
What are the symptoms of MS?
One of the most common symptoms of MS is muscle spasms and stiffness. Learn how to control muscle spas ms and relieve muscle stiffness caused by multiple sclerosis. Skip to main content .
What is the procedure to relieve spasms?
In one type, a surgeon cuts away part of the spinal nerve. The operation is called rhizotomy. The goal is to relieve pain or ease muscle tension. Tendon release, also called a tenotomy, is the second type.