Is catatonia a rare condition that belongs in the history books, or is it more prevalent than we think? If we think we don’t see it often, how will we recognize it? And how do we treat it? This article reviews the evolution of our understanding of the phenomenology and therapy of this interesting and complex condition.
History of the concept
In 1874, Kahlbaum1,2 was the first to propose a syndrome of motor dysfunction characterized by mutism, immobility, staring gaze, negativism, stereotyped behavior, waxy flexibility, and verbal stereotypies that he called catatonia. Kahlbaum conceptualized catatonia as a distinct disorder,3 but Kraepelin reformulated it as a feature of dementia praecox.4 Although Bleuler felt that catatonia could occur in other psychiatric disorders and in normal people,4 he also included catatonia as a marker of schizophrenia, where it remained from DSM-I through DSM-IV.3 As was believed to be true of schizophrenia, Kraepelin considered catatonia to be characterized by poor prognosis, whereas Bleuler eliminated poor prognosis as a criterion for catatonia.3
In DSM-IV, catatonia was still a subtype of schizophrenia, but for the first time it was expanded diagnostically to become both a specifier in mood disorders, and a syndrome resulting from a general medical condition.5,6 In DSM-5, catatonic schizophrenia was deleted, and catatonia became a specifier for 10 disorders, including schizophrenia, mood disorders, and general medical conditions.3,5-9 In ICD-10, however, catatonia is still associated primarily with schizophrenia.10
A wide range of presentations
Catatonia is a cyclical syndrome characterized by alterations in motor, behavioral, and vocal signs occurring in the context of medical, neurologic, and psychiatric disorders.8 The most common features are immobility, waxy flexibility, stupor, mutism, negativism, echolalia, echopraxia, peculiarities of voluntary movement, and rigidity.7,11 Features of catatonia that have been repeatedly described through the years are summarized in Table 1.8,12,13 In general, presentations of catatonia are not specific to any psychiatric or medical etiology.13,14
Catatonia often is described along a continuum from retarded/stuporous to excited,14,15 and from benign to malignant.13 Examples of these ranges of presentation include5,12,13,15-19:
Stuporous/retarded catatonia (Kahlbaum syndrome) is a primarily negative syndrome in which stupor, mutism, negativism, obsessional slowness, and posturing predominate. Akinetic mutism and coma vigil are sometimes considered to be types of stuporous catatonia, as occasionally are locked-in syndrome and abulia caused by anterior cingulate lesions.
Excited catatonia (hyperkinetic variant, Bell’s mania, oneirophrenia, oneroid state/syndrome, catatonia raptus) is characterized by agitation, combativeness, verbigeration, stereotypies, grimacing, and echo phenomena (echopraxia and echolalia).
Continue to: Malignant (lethal) catatonia