What are the symptoms of morning stiffness?

Morning stiffness is not a disease clinically, but a symptom of a disease, which is mainly caused by rheumatoid disease. Many people don’t know what morning stiffness is. Clinically, the symptoms of morning stiffness are mainly manifested in joint stiffness. Osteoarthritis can also cause morning stiffness.

1. Performance

Patients experience stiffness in the affected joints when they wake up in the morning or after a period of inactivity, and limited mobility. In severe cases, they may feel stiffness in the joints of the whole body. The symptoms may be alleviated or disappear after getting up and moving around or warming up.

    2. Diagnosis

1. Ankylosing spondylitis (AS):

In the early stages, lower back pain and morning stiffness are common, which are relieved after activity, and may be accompanied by low fever, fatigue, loss of appetite, weight loss and other symptoms.

2. Osteoarthritis:

Morning stiffness is relatively short-lived, generally not exceeding 15 minutes. Sticking sensation refers to the feeling of stiffness, as if the joint is stuck, when you start to move it after it has been stationary for a period of time. It is more common in the elderly and lower limb joints and can be improved after activity.

3. Rheumatism:

Common symptoms include general fatigue, morning stiffness, fever, weight loss, and pain. It is more common in systemic lupus erythematosus, various arthritis, polymyositis and dermatomyositis. If fever occurs, in addition to the primary disease, infectious fever caused by various pathogens must be excluded.

4. Joint damage caused by Behcet's disease:

All large and small joints of the limbs and the lumbar joints may be affected, with symptoms of pain or soreness, obvious morning stiffness, long-term recurrent attacks of arthritis, rare redness and swelling, and very little deformation.

3. Others

Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is common in young people aged 16 to 30, more common in men. It is rare for the first onset after the age of 40, accounting for about 3.3%. The disease has an insidious onset, slow progression, and mild systemic symptoms. In the early stages, lower back pain and morning stiffness are common, which are relieved after activity, and may be accompanied by low fever, fatigue, loss of appetite, weight loss and other symptoms. The pain is intermittent at first, and becomes continuous after several months or years. Later, the inflammatory pain disappears, and the spine becomes partially or completely stiff from bottom to top, resulting in a hunchback deformity. Peripheral joint involvement is more common in female patients, with slower progression and less severe spinal deformity.