Understanding the Causes and Symptoms of Catatonia: Beyond Schizophrenia

2023-09-16 19:00:00

Catatonia, also called catatonic syndrome, has long been associated and attributed to schizophrenia. However, in recent decades, researchers have discovered that its causes are much more diverse.

Catatonia is caused by psychiatric disorders (illnesses that affect the person’s mental health), neurological problems (causing abnormalities in the functioning of the brain), or systemic diseases, which alter the functioning of one or more body systems. Today, almost 150 years following its first description, scientists still cannot explain why catatonia occurs in an individual. However, they identified several factors, including chemical imbalances in the brain and genetic causes that are passed down between generations. In the absence of a specific cause, it is only possible to list diseases or conditions that can cause catatonia.

How to define a catatonic state?

Medical sources associate the catatonic state with psychotic symptoms. That is to say a psychological degeneration similar to attacks of madness such as hallucinations, negation, pathological guilt. While it is hardly a question of madness, but, according to medical hypotheses, of disturbances “vegetative and endocrine” which is most often observed in schizophrenia. This is why medical sources associate the catatonic state with catalepsy. A sort of hypnotic state very observed in a schizophrenic crisis. We therefore note thata catatonic state is a crisis similar to schizophrenia where the subject manifests agitated behavior with delusional ideas and a feeling of derealization or even hallucinations.

Psychiatric causes of catatonia

In regarding 66% of cases, according to doctors of psychiatry Ali Amad, Thomas Fovet, Maéva Magnat and Professor Pierre Thomas, working at the Lille University Hospital Center(1), catatonia has psychiatric causes. It can thus be caused by:

Non-psychiatric causes of catatonia

In 33% of cases, catatonia is caused by a non-psychiatric illness, but a systemic, metabolic, hormone-related, cancerous, etc. illness. Diseases that can cause catatonia are:

certain autoimmune diseases, such as systemic lupus erythematosus or multiple sclerosis;degenerative brain diseases, such as frontotemporal dementiaParkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease or Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease;exposure to certain medications that caused poisoningincluding steroids or antipsychotics;epilepsy;brain damage caused for example by a stroke or head trauma;infections affecting the central nervous system: infections par le virus herpes simplex (HSV), sida, neurosyphilis ;autoimmune encephalopathy ;thyroid disorders ;a deficiency of vitamin B12 or PP;Wilson’s disease;drug withdrawal particularly benzodiazepines or clozapine.

Source (1) : Catatonie

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