Catatonia

Lithium-Associated Nephrogenic Diabetes Insipidus or Catatonic Stereotypical Drinking?

“…Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Fifth Edition, Text Revision) requires the presence of 3 of 12 features for diagnosis, which are stupor, catalepsy, waxy flexibility, mutism, negativism, posturing, mannerism, stereotypies, agitation, grimacing, echolalia, and echopraxia 1 . The point prevalence of catatonia symptoms among patients with bipolar disorder is estimated to be 28% 5 . At the same time, up to 20% of patients with mania were reported to have catatonic symptoms 6 .…”

Malignant catatonia responsive to low doses of lorazepam: case report

“…Taylor and Abrams noted that 28% of their patients with bipolar disorder exhibited catatonic features. 1 , 10 Gelenger correlated catatonia with neurological and general medical conditions, believing that catatonia should be considered to be a syndrome, not a disease. 11 …”

Neuroendocrine Differences among Subtypes of Schizophrenic Disorder?

“…However, these schizophrenic symptoms usually include affective and motor features or cognitive style characterizing the hebephrenic patient or those with cata tonia [Abrams et al, 1979], not the typical stilted, formal istic persecutory or grandiose delusions seen in the para noid subjects. Moreover, some studies cast serious doubt on the generally accepted view that catatonia -originally described by Kahlbaum in 1974 -belongs necessarily to the schizophrenic disorders: catatonic symptoms may occur in many physical illnesses [Gelenberg, 1976], and also in affective disorders [Abrams and Taylor, 1976;Taylor and Abrams, 1977], Taking into consideration that it may be extremely difficult, or even impossible, to differentiate some catatonic states from similar condi tions in depression (e.g. stupor, stereotyped excitement, etc.)…”