Core features of catatonia and malignant catatonia

Core features of catatonia and malignant catatonia

Catatonia is a peculiar syndrome of seemingly opposite features such as

  • severe psychomotor retardation (stupor) or agitation;
  • excessive and strange activity such as grimacing, odd mannerisms;
  • repetitive, nongoal-directed stereotypies;
  • maintenance of postures spontaneously (posturing), or with passive induction (catalepsy) that may be altered even with resistance from the examiner (waxy flexibility), or resisted with equal and opposite force (gegenhalten);
  • or withdrawal from interaction (negativism) or communication (mutism), or the mimicking of movements or speech (echopraxia and echolalia).
  • Catatonia is denoted as malignant when autonomic lability (fever, widely variable heart rate or blood pressure) is present.
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