I Battle Depression and Anxiety
You will never hear it mentioned, no matter how long you have been involved in the mental health system. In the waiting room, where there are brochures on depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, bipolar and OCD, there will be nothing on catatonia. Even if you suffer from it or care for someone suffering with it, you will never hear it mentioned by name and if you live where I live you will have zero chance of getting effectively treated for it.
Catatonia is a condition that is not recognised as a separate disorder in itself, but is rather, a feature of a range of mental health conditions, and other conditions as well. It is defined as, "a state of neurogenic motor immobility and behavioural abnormality manifested by stupor." Only here's the catch - it can also be manifested by extreme hyperactivity. The one term covers completely opposite extremes of behaviour.
My entry into the world of catatonia was when my eldest son started to experience these stupors. A "stupor" is a lack of response to external stimuli. And he would become cataleptic. "Catalepsy" is muscular rigidity. Typically, he would have an extreme anxiety attack, followed by a psychotic phase, and finally a catatonic stupor that would last anything from several hours to several days. He would lose his ability to speak. He would lie in a position and not be able to move from it. He would be walking across the room and suddenly not be able to walk any more.
Catatonia can be a feature of such conditions as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, post traumatic stress disorder and depression. It can also follow a drug overdose or sudden withdrawal from a prescribed medication, which is what happened in my son's case. Though he had an underlying condition of anxiety and depression. It can also occur in young autistic adults.
Possible complications of catatonia are malnutrition, exhaustion and hyperpyresia (an extremely high fever). You can also lose your ability to breathe. You can also fall and experience head injuries etc. So it can be an extremely serious and life threatening condition.
Why, then, is it not treated as such? Why is it never mentioned? Why aren't parents of children with psychiatric illnesses warned of it developing and taught to recognise it?
Well, I can mention one reason. We don't want people to think that there are such extreme nasties waiting in store in the world of manageable mental health problems. Another reason - in a system of extreme shortages of psychiatrists, we can't expect the social workers replacing them to be able to recognise and treat this condition.
The annoying thing is, that this condition responds very well to treatment. Treatment consists usually of benzodiazepines. A test dose of 1-2mg of intramuscular lorazepam will often result in marked improvement within half an hour. Sometimes antipsychotic medication can help, though in some cases it can have the opposite effect and be extremely dangerous, as with autistic patients. ECT therapy is an effective treatment for catatonia, as well as for the underlying conditions that cause it.
But if you present at a hospital with an acute onset of it, you will be the last person seen, waiting for 8 or 9 hours. You will not be treated as someone with a serious condition who needs urgent treatment. Why?
Perhaps there is something I am just not seeing. But from where I stand, catatonia is the "c" word of psychiatry.
Catatonia is a condition that is not recognised as a separate disorder in itself, but is rather, a feature of a range of mental health conditions, and other conditions as well. It is defined as, "a state of neurogenic motor immobility and behavioural abnormality manifested by stupor." Only here's the catch - it can also be manifested by extreme hyperactivity. The one term covers completely opposite extremes of behaviour.
My entry into the world of catatonia was when my eldest son started to experience these stupors. A "stupor" is a lack of response to external stimuli. And he would become cataleptic. "Catalepsy" is muscular rigidity. Typically, he would have an extreme anxiety attack, followed by a psychotic phase, and finally a catatonic stupor that would last anything from several hours to several days. He would lose his ability to speak. He would lie in a position and not be able to move from it. He would be walking across the room and suddenly not be able to walk any more.
Catatonia can be a feature of such conditions as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, post traumatic stress disorder and depression. It can also follow a drug overdose or sudden withdrawal from a prescribed medication, which is what happened in my son's case. Though he had an underlying condition of anxiety and depression. It can also occur in young autistic adults.
Possible complications of catatonia are malnutrition, exhaustion and hyperpyresia (an extremely high fever). You can also lose your ability to breathe. You can also fall and experience head injuries etc. So it can be an extremely serious and life threatening condition.
Why, then, is it not treated as such? Why is it never mentioned? Why aren't parents of children with psychiatric illnesses warned of it developing and taught to recognise it?
Well, I can mention one reason. We don't want people to think that there are such extreme nasties waiting in store in the world of manageable mental health problems. Another reason - in a system of extreme shortages of psychiatrists, we can't expect the social workers replacing them to be able to recognise and treat this condition.
The annoying thing is, that this condition responds very well to treatment. Treatment consists usually of benzodiazepines. A test dose of 1-2mg of intramuscular lorazepam will often result in marked improvement within half an hour. Sometimes antipsychotic medication can help, though in some cases it can have the opposite effect and be extremely dangerous, as with autistic patients. ECT therapy is an effective treatment for catatonia, as well as for the underlying conditions that cause it.
But if you present at a hospital with an acute onset of it, you will be the last person seen, waiting for 8 or 9 hours. You will not be treated as someone with a serious condition who needs urgent treatment. Why?
Perhaps there is something I am just not seeing. But from where I stand, catatonia is the "c" word of psychiatry.
By:
perseverer
Age:
51-55
,
Female
