Steroid responsive catatonia: A case of Hashimoto’s encephalopathy

Abstract

Hashimoto’s encephalopathy (HE) commonly presents with two types of neurological presentation: recurrent stroke-like episodes or seizures and progressive cognitive decline. Being a treatable disorder, one cannot afford to miss the diagnosis. We report a female with HE who presented with a history of recurrent episodes of catatonia, recovering completely with steroids. The diagnosis of the primary disease got delayed for 5 months. HE presenting as catatonia has been reported rarely. A high degree of suspicion in appropriate clinical settings, resulting in early diagnosis, is rewarding as HE usually show good response to corticosteroids.

Keywords

• autoimmune thyroiditis
• catatonia
• corticosteroids
• hashimoto’s encephalopathy
• thyroid peroxidase