Date Posted: December 3, 2020
Contributing Authors: Joseph Kugler and Joseph Cooper, MD
Overview: Catatonia is an incredibly common psychiatric syndrome. Yet it is misperceived by many clinicians as either rare or as a historic syndrome which has disappeared. Modern studies show about 10% of inpatient psychiatric patients suffer from catatonia (1). In truth, the only thing which has disappeared is clinicians’ ability to properly identify catatonia’s signs and symptoms (2, 3).
In this series of modules, we will introduce learners to the syndrome of catatonia through an example in the inpatient psychiatric hospital, identify common symptoms of catatonia, and review techniques necessary for identifying signs on motor and cognitive exams. We then review the normal motor regulatory systems in the brain and finally review what is known about dysfunction in these systems in catatonia.
Author Affiliation: Dr. Kugler is from Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Cooper is from the University of Illinois at Chicago. The National Neuroscience Curriculum Initiative is a collaborative effort with the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training (AADPRT) and the American Psychiatric Association (APA) Council on Medical Education and Lifelong Learning and receives support from the NIH (R25 MH101076 02S1) ©National Neuroscience Curriculum Initiative.
