Catatonia: Clinical Features and Treatment

Catatonia was first introduced by Karl Kahlbaum in 1874 and it is a syndrome characterized by motor, cognitive, affective and autonomic symptoms. As first, it was linked with just schizophrenia for many years but it is currently known that this disorder may occur with many psychiatric disorders and other medical conditions. In the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders that published in 2013, the subtypes of schizophrenia have been removed and the relationship between catatonia and schizophrenia which lasts over one hundred years ended. In this paper, we reviewed the literature about catatonia and aimed to look over its history, epidemiology, etiology, clinical features, prognosis and treatment through current knowledge