There are several causes that precipitate the disease.
They are as follows:

Calcium deficiency, prolonged steroid administration, chronic malnutrition, bone marrow disorders and diabetes.

Usually there are no symptoms during the early stage of the disease. Only when it becomes chronic, severe pain is felt in various parts of the body, sometimes followed by jerking, flexing the spine etc.

In some cases, the patients are more susceptible to multiple fractures. There may be gross kyphosis of the vertebrae and later on the thoracic cage gets shrunken.

Treatment: In homoeopathy, Calcarea phos is the principal medicine for this disease. Calcarea carb, Ruta and Calcarea Flourica can also be used in curing the disease to a large extent.