The following symptoms and complaints may indicate muscle spasm:
Leading Symptoms
- Involuntary and painful muscle contraction.
- Is accompanied by a hardening of the affected muscle
- Usually lasts only a short time
- Self-limiting, that is, it stops by itself again
- Often occurs at night and at rest
- Affects mainly the lower extremity (e.g., calf cramp)
The following symptoms and complaints may indicate a spasm:
Leading symptoms
- Repetitive cramping contraction of individual muscles or muscle groups at time intervals.
- Uniform and static contraction that usually persists over a relatively long time interval (= tonic spasm).
- Involuntary, rhythmic contractions of muscles or muscle groups, i.e., alternating contraction and relaxation of muscle fibers. This often occurs in a short temporal sequence (= clonic spasm or clonus).
According to the duration of clonus, two forms of clonic spasm can be distinguished:
- Inexhaustible clonus
- Exhaustible clonus (only in case of side difference pathological/disease).
The following symptoms and complaints may occur along with spasticity:
Leading symptom
- Increased, velocity-dependent stretch resistance of the skeletal muscles.
Associated symptoms
- Muscle paresis (paralysis)
- Increased reflexes/pathological reflexes
- Slowed movement
