Objective: Catatonia is a psychomotor syndrome characterized by concomitant emotional, behavioural and motor symptoms. In many cases clinical symptoms disappear almost immediately with administration of lorazepam, which acts on GABA(A) receptors.
Methods: Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) we investigated prefrontal activation patterns during emotion processing in catatonic patients with and without lorazepam in a double-blind study design. For emotional stimulation the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) was used. BOLD-signals were determined using regions of interest (ROI) and were statistically compared between groups.
Results: For negative emotional pictures lorazepam induced higher signal decreases in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) in catatonic patients than in healthy subjects resulting in a regularization of activity patterns comparable to healthy subjects with placebo.
Conclusions: Results indicate disturbances in the functioning of OFC in catatonia. GABAergic modified emotion regulation with decreased inhibition of affective stimuli could lead to the intense emotions reported by many catatonic patients.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hup.1084 | DOI Listing |
Curr Opin Psychiatry
December 2024
Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center at Village of Vanderbilt.
Purpose Of Review: Over the last quarter century, the clinical evidence surrounding the use of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has expanded. This review provides the most up-to-date findings on the usage of ECT in ASD and discusses these results within the historical context and direct patient care experience.
Recent Findings: ECT is typically implemented for psychotropic-refractory catatonic, affective, psychotic, and combined pathology for individuals across the lifespan.
Ann Gen Psychiatry
January 2025
Department of Neuropsychiatry, Faculty of Life Sciences, Kumamoto University, 1-1-1 Honjo, Chuo-Ku, Kumamoto, 860-8556, Japan.
Background: Seizure threshold increases with age and the frequency of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Therefore, therapeutic seizures can be difficult to induce, even at maximum stimulus charge with available ECT devices. Such cases are known as difficult-to-induce-seizures electroconvulsive therapy cases (DECs).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ ECT
December 2024
From the Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University Hospital of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
Autoimmune encephalitis (AE) tends to manifest as a mixture of neuropsychiatric and somatic symptoms, either of which may predominate, and often shows a progressive clinical course sometimes leading to life-threatening conditions. Catatonic and psychotic syndromes, regardless of whether associated with dysautonomia, are common manifestations of AE, especially concerning the anti-NMDAR subtype. Several autoantibodies targeting different neuronal epitopes have been linked to specific clinical manifestations and their detection is embedded in some of the diagnostic criteria for AE.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeurocrit Care
January 2025
Department of Neurology, Mayo Clinic Rochester, Rochester, MN, USA.
Background: Neuroleptic malignant syndrome (NMS) is a psychiatric-neurologic emergency that may require intensive care management. There is a paucity of information about NMS as a critical illness. We reviewed the Mayo Clinic experience.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnn Clin Transl Neurol
January 2025
Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins Encephalitis Center, Johns Hopkin School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
Objective: Encephalitis is a serious and potentially life-threatening condition of infectious or autoimmune cause. We aim to characterize the frequency and clinical spectrum of presenting psychiatric symptoms in encephalitis in order to inform earlier recognition and initiation of treatment.
Methods: This was a retrospective study of adult patients who met the 2013 International Encephalitis Consortium (IEC) and/or 2016 Graus criteria between February 2005 and February 2023.
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