Am J Psychiatry 1977; 134:78-80
Copyright © 1977 by American Psychiatric Association
Catatonia: prediction of response to somatic treatments
R Abrams and MA Taylor
The authors investigated predictors of somatic treatment response in 55
patients with one or more of eight catatonic motor features. Responders
more often had good prognostic signs, rapid or pressured speech, and
diagnosable affective disorder or alcoholism. Nonresponders were younger at
age of onset of first illness and were more frequently disoriented; they
included all patients diagnosed as schizophrenic. The authors suggest that
treatment response in catatonia is a function of primary diagnosis and that
the syndrome is diagnostically nonspecific but occurs most often in
patients with affective disorders.
