What disease causes morning stiffness

Morning stiffness is a common clinical symptom, mainly manifested in joint stiffness. Clinically, many diseases may cause morning stiffness, especially rheumatoid arthritis, which is very likely to cause morning stiffness. Of course, morning stiffness may also be physiological, so when treating it, it is important to identify the cause of the morning stiffness so that the right medicine can be prescribed. So what is the disease that causes morning stiffness?

1. Morning stiffness is not exclusive to rheumatoid arthritis

Its "traces" can be found in other types of inflammatory arthritis, such as systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatic myofibrosis, osteoarthritis, dermatomyositis, ankylosing spondylitis, psoriatic arthritis, reactive arthritis, etc., which may all cause morning stiffness. Therefore, the morning stiffness symptom alone cannot clearly diagnose what disease it is. A comprehensive assessment of the clinical manifestations and combined tests such as erythrocyte sedimentation rate, anti-"O", rheumatoid factor, and autoantibodies are required to confirm the diagnosis.

2. Morning stiffness may also be physiological

Although morning stiffness is a signal of certain diseases, it is not necessarily a disease, because morning stiffness can be divided into physiological and pathological morning stiffness. Physiological morning stiffness should be distinguished from pathological morning stiffness. For example, mild morning stiffness in the elderly is a normal physiological phenomenon, which usually lasts less than 15 minutes, is mild in severity, and is easy to relieve. It does not require any treatment, and there is no need to be nervous or afraid. If morning stiffness lasts for a long time (more than 30 minutes) or is accompanied by joint swelling and pain, it has clinical significance, suggesting that it is pathological and there is an underlying disease.

3. Others

Rheumatoid arthritis patients experience morning stiffness during the acute or active phase of the disease, and the duration is proportional to the severity of the synovitis. In severe cases, the stiffness may persist "all day" while the patient is awake, although this persistent stiffness, strictly speaking, is far beyond the scope of morning stiffness. As the condition improves, the morning stiffness shortens or is alleviated, and may disappear completely when the condition is relieved. Morning stiffness is one of the important indicators for observing and judging the severity of the disease. Generally, morning stiffness lasting more than 30 minutes is clinically significant. According to research, rheumatoid arthritis patients in Western countries experience longer morning stiffness than those in Eastern countries. In the diagnostic criteria for rheumatoid arthritis established by the American College of Rheumatology, one of the criteria states that morning stiffness must last for more than 1 hour.