Drug-induced catatonia

Catatonia is a heterogeneous syndrome that varies in etiology, presentation, course and sequelae. Initially conceptualized as a subtype of schizophrenia, catatonia is now recognized to occur not only with other psychiatric conditions but also with medical conditions and drug-induced and toxic states. While drug-induced catatonia is now a recognized entity, most studies club it with catatonia due to general medical conditions or organic catatonia, thus precluding any meaningful interpretation of such cases. The literature on drug-induced catatonia mostly draws from scattered case reports. This article attempts to review the available literature in this realm and integrate the information in an attempt to explore the epidemiology, etiology, mechanism and treatment of drug-induced catatonia. (C) 2005 Prous Science. All rights reserved.