Sucheta Sharma MBBS, Ashish Sarangi MD, Vishi Sachdeva MBBS Psychiatry, Siddhanth Rangineni MBBS Internal Medicine
Background: Catatonia has been an established neuropsychiatric syndrome for decades. It has been reported to occur in approximately 10% of patients with acute psychiatric illness. There are not many current data depicting a definite association between COVID-19 and catatonia, especially in the intensive care unit (ICU), and more research is needed in this area. Although a variety of neuropsychiatric manifestations have been reported, to our knowledge COVID-19 has a limited association thus far with catatonia. With the increased prevalence of psychiatric illness during the pandemic, it is hypothesized that catatonia will also have increased rates moving forward. We aim to review the association between COVID-19 and catatonia.
Methods: A thorough literature review was conducted focusing on studies which reported any association or non-association between COVID-19 and catatonia. It is our hypothesis that with an increase prevalence in mental health pathology, there has been a simultaneous increase in cases of catatonia.
Conclusion: Catatonia can be a life-threatening syndrome which can complicate management of various psychiatric as well as medical conditions. Hence, it is critical to evaluate and address the association between catatonia and COVID-19, which continues to impact communities and burden healthcare systems worldwide. Early recognition and interventions with life-saving procedures, such as electroconvulsive therapy, are necessary to reduce the long-term impact of catatonia.
Keywords: Catatonia, COVID-19, neuropsychiatric syndrome, pandemic, electroconvulsive therapy
Article citation: Sharma S, Sarangi A, Sachdeva V, Rangineni S. The association of COVID-19 and catatonia in the ICU-recognition, management, and the role of electroconvulsive therapy. The Southwest Respiratory and Critical Care Chronicles 2022;10(44):29–34
From: Punjab Institute of Medical Sciences (SS), Jalandhar, India; Geriatric Psychiatry, Baylor College of Medicine (AS), Houston, USA; Adesh Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (VS), Bathinda, India; Shadan Institute of Medical Sciences (SR), Hyderabad, India
Submitted: 1/17/2022
Accepted: 6/25/2022
Conflicts of interest: none
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