Maintenance electro convulsive therapy for recurrent catatonia – a case report

Abstract

Catatonia was first described by Kahlbaum as a disorder of movement and speech .Kraeplin grouped catatonia along with other sub types of schizophrenia. In ICD-10 catatonia is mentioned as sub type of schizophrenia. DSM-5 gives independent status to catatonia. Catatonia may be caused by many medical conditions ,but in psychiatry it is associated more with mood disorders and schizophrenia. There are certain conditions with recurrent catatonia like the Periodic catatonia .We present a case of 35year old woman who has recurrent catatonia for the past 15 years .She was diagnosed with catatonic schizophrenia initially, treated with adequate trials of different antipsychotics , mood stabilisers and benzodiazepines with poor response. For the past several years she is being given maintainance ECT to which she is showing good response. ECT is effective in the treatment of recurrent catatonia and can be maintained.

Keywords

• recurrent catatonia
• maintainance ect
• good response