Symptoms of Catatonic Schizophrenia
With improvements in treatments, catatonic schizophrenia is much rarer than before. In general, the condition is characterized by at least 3 of the following signs:
– Catalepsy: This includes abnormal postures
– Stupor: No interaction with surrounding environments or psychomotor activities
– Mutism: reduced verbal responses
– Waxy flexibility: If the arm of the patient is placed in a position, it will not change until it is moved again
– Posturing: Try to hold a posture actively against gravity
– Negativism: No or little response to external stimuli or instructions
– Mannerism: Exaggerated or strange actions
– Agitation for unknown reasons
– Stereotypy: repeated movements without obvious reasons
– Echopraxia: imitating the movements of other people
– Echolalia: imitating the speech of other people
– Grimacing
If left untreated, these symptoms would keep occurring for days or weeks.[2]
