Overview
Catatonia is a syndrome common in mood disorders like major depressive disorders that involves a severely withdrawn affect and difficulty processing information, sometimes appearing to be motionless or repeating certain movements.
The ICD-11 and DSM-5 both recognized catatonia based on a list of criteria, three of which must be met:
-
Agitation: restlessness or excessive movements
-
Echolalia: repeating another person’s verbal speech patterns
-
Echopraxia: repeating another person’s physical movements
-
Grimacing: holding facial expressions that are disconnected from normal or appropriate emotions in their environment
-
Stupor: appearing to be immobile and unresponsive
-
Catalepsy: holding a posture or gesture despite gravity
-
Waxy flexibility: slight resistance to adjustments to movements
-
mutism: lack of verbal responsiveness despite appearing to be alert
-
negativism: resistance or unresponsiveness to instructions or external stimulus
-
posturing: voluntarily adopting unusual posture
-
mannerism: exaggerated movements
-
stereotypy: repetitive movements or gestures that don’t serve any purpose