Abstract
Background: Pediatric catatonia is a rare and poorly understood phenomenon. The majority of reported cases have a psychiatric etiology. Because of the heterogeneous presentation and treatment issues unique to the pediatric population, identification and management can be challenging. Additionally, few definitive guidelines or practice parameters are available for pediatric patients. The first-line treatment for catatonia is pharmacologic, and when treatment fails or is inadequate, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) has been shown to be safe and effective.
Case Report: A previously healthy, 14-year-old male presented with acute onset of catatonia that resolved at 4 weeks after a short course of ECT with adjunctive lorazepam and risperidone. An interesting feature of this case was the resolution of autonomic symptoms and the emergence of conversion features. The resolution of the catatonia (negativism, mutism, and withdrawal) made it possible for the team to identify a thought disorder and initiate appropriate pharmacologic treatment for the precipitating etiology.
Conclusion: ECT was a safe and effective treatment for the resolution of catatonia symptoms in this patient. Conversion and catatonia features may exist on a continuum.
- ©2020 by the author(s); Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY)
©2020 by the author(s); licensee Ochsner Journal, Ochsner Clinic Foundation, New Orleans, LA. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode) that permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.