Musculoskeletal and Social Security Disability
Spine, joints, and other musculoskeletal disorders that can limit standing, walking, lifting, and use of the arms or hands.
Musculoskeletal disorders can affect standing, walking, lifting, carrying, reaching, handling, and other activities required for work. Some conditions also affect the ability to remain seated, change positions, or use the hands consistently throughout a workday.
Social Security groups these impairments under Adult Listing 1.00. Current listings address nerve-root compromise, lumbar stenosis affecting the cauda equina, major-joint abnormalities, reconstructive surgery, fractures, and amputations. A diagnosis such as degenerative disc disease or osteoarthritis does not, by itself, meet a listing. The medical evidence has to show the findings and functional limits the listing requires — or the claim continues through residual functional capacity (RFC) analysis.
Many back and joint claims are decided at the RFC steps rather than by meeting a listing. That is why longitudinal treatment notes, imaging when appropriate, and specific functional observations matter as much as the label on the chart.
Browse the musculoskeletal condition guides below, or return to the Disability Conditions Center.
Official SSA resource: Listing 1.00 — Musculoskeletal Disorders
Musculoskeletal condition guides
- Degenerative Disc Disease
Age-related or injury-related disc wear that may cause pain, stiffness, or nerve-root symptoms. A diagnosis alone does not meet a Social Security listing.
- Herniated Disc
A disc herniation may irritate or compress a nerve root. Social Security may consider Listing 1.15 when the current criteria are documented.
- Spinal Stenosis
Narrowing of the spinal canal or nerve openings. Lumbar stenosis with cauda equina compromise may be evaluated under Listing 1.16.
- Osteoarthritis
Joint cartilage wear that can limit standing, walking, or use of the hands. SSA may consider Listing 1.18 when a major joint meets current criteria.
- Rheumatoid Arthritis
An inflammatory autoimmune arthritis. SSA may evaluate it under Listing 14.09 when the current immune-system criteria are met.
- Fibromyalgia
A medically determinable impairment under SSR 12-2p when diagnostic criteria are documented. There is no fibromyalgia listing.
- Chronic Back Pain
A symptom, not a listing. SSA needs a medically determinable cause and documented functional limits. This page links the common spine diagnoses.
- Scoliosis
A sideways curvature of the spine. There is no scoliosis listing. Evaluation follows documented respiratory, neurologic, or musculoskeletal effects.
- Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
Carpal tunnel syndrome has no dedicated adult listing. SSA evaluates documented median-nerve impairment and whether hand use, pain, or treatment recovery prevent sustained work.
- Amputation
SSA evaluates amputation under Listing 1.20. What matters is the level of the residual limb, whether a prosthesis can actually be used, and whether a documented two-handed walking or wheeled device is needed. A healed below-knee amputation with a usable prosthesis may miss the listing and still be an RFC case.
- Hip or Knee Replacement
Listing 1.17 addresses reconstructive surgery or surgical arthrodesis of a major weight-bearing joint when the listing’s duration and functional criteria are met, including a documented medical need for a qualifying mobility device involving both hands. A person who does not meet Listing 1.17 may still be evaluated through residual functional capacity.
- Complex Regional Pain Syndrome
CRPS has no dedicated adult listing. SSR 03-2p explains how SSA determines whether CRPS is a medically determinable impairment and then considers medical equivalence or residual functional capacity based on the documented symptoms, signs, and functional limitations.
- Cervical Myelopathy
Cervical myelopathy involves spinal cord dysfunction in the neck. SSA may evaluate qualifying spinal cord impairment under Listing 11.08 or apply Listing 1.15 when separate nerve-root criteria are met. Listing 1.16 applies specifically to lumbar spinal stenosis resulting in compromise of the cauda equina.
- Adrenal Disorders
There is no adult listing titled Addison’s disease or Cushing’s syndrome. Listing 9.00 and SSR 14-3p evaluate adrenal disorders by their effects on bone, heart, weight, and mood—not by a cortisol value alone.
- Crohn’s Disease
Crohn’s disease is an inflammatory bowel disease. Listing 5.06 uses documented intestinal disease plus specified obstruction, laboratory, nutritional, perianal, or repeated-complication criteria.
- Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome
Ehlers-Danlos syndrome has no dedicated adult SSA listing. SSA evaluates documented joint instability, vascular complications, skin findings, autonomic effects, and other manifestations under the affected body systems and through residual functional capacity when no listing is met.
- Inflammatory Arthritis
A broad group of immune-mediated joint and spine diseases, including psoriatic arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis. Listing 14.09 has several disease-pattern pathways.
- Lupus
Systemic lupus can affect joints, skin, kidneys, lungs, blood, or the nervous system. Listing 14.02 requires defined organ involvement or repeated manifestations with serious functional limits.
- Muscular Dystrophy
SSA evaluates muscular dystrophy under Listing 11.13 using extreme motor limits in two extremities or marked physical plus marked mental limitation. Some named dystrophies appear on the current CAL list; not every MD diagnosis does.
- Spinal Cord Injury
SSA evaluates spinal cord disorders under Listing 11.08. The listing contains three-month persistence requirements, but SSA may allow some claims sooner; documented total cord transection with loss of motor and sensory function below the injury is an express example.
Speak with a Social Security Disability attorney
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This page is general educational information about Social Security Disability as of the date of this publication. It is not legal or medical advice, does not create an attorney-client relationship, and does not guarantee results. Eligibility depends on individual facts and current Social Security rules.
