CATATONIC DISORDER DUE TO GENERAL MEDICAL CONDITIONS

Catatonia is a neuropsychiatric syndrome that may present a difficult diagnostic dilemma. Catatonic disorder due to general medical conditio ns must be considered in every patient with catatonic signs. Four pati ents with this disorder are presented. In these patients, general medi cal conditions associated with catatonic disorder included dystonia, H IV encephalopathy, progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy, encepha litis, and renal failure. Three of these patients had multifactorial p resentations of medical conditions or prior psychiatric disorders. A c ritical literature review concerning catatonia and associated nonpsych iatric medical conditions only infrequently supported causal relations hips between organic factors and the development of catatonia. The maj ority of patients have multifactorial etiologies.