Incidence of catatonia in children and adolescents in a paediatric psychiatric clinic.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the incidence and phenomenology of catatonia in a child and adolescent population.


METHODS
Children and adolescents who had attended a paediatric psychiatric outpatient clinic between April and July 2001 were examined for catatonic signs with a formal catatonia rating scale, and patients who had at least two catatonic signs were included.


RESULTS
Eleven patients met the criteria (5.5% of the entire sample and 17.7% of the patients with affective and nonaffective psychotic disorder); of them eight had an affective disorder and three a nonaffective disorder. The mean catatonic scores were significantly high for males and patients with mental retardation.


CONCLUSIONS
This study shows that catatonia occurs in children and adolescents. Further studies are essential to clarify the distribution of catatonia across various diagnoses and the outcome of paediatric catatonia.
Thakur
Anupam
A
Central Institute of Psychiatry, Kanke (Po), Ranchi-834 006, Jharkhand, India. anupam_thakur2000@yahoo.com
Jagadheesan
K
K
Dutta
Siddartha
S
Sinha
Vinod Kumar
VK
D000293:Adolescent; D000553:Ambulatory Care; D002389:Catatonia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000628:therapy*; D002648:Child; D002665:Child Psychiatry; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008605:Mental Health Services; D016896:Treatment Outcome