Electroconvulsive therapy resolves cortical inhibition and manneristic omissions in a chronic catatonic patient

J Neural Transm (Vienna). 2010 Oct;117(10):1209-12. doi: 10.1007/s00702-010-0467-7. Epub 2010 Sep 1.

Abstract

We investigated a patient with severe catatonic schizophrenia (manneristic catatonia according to Karl Leonhard) treated with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) after pharmacological approaches did not result in any clinical improvement. Before and after nine ECT sessions a double-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) paradigm was used to measure intracortical inhibition (ICI) which has been shown to be reduced in a significant proportion of patients with schizophrenia. Although the patient showed no remission regarding some psychomotor aspects after ECT, we found an increase in ICI and a remarkable clinical improvement of catatonic omissions which might be due to changes in the GABAergic system.

Publication types

  • Case Reports
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Catatonia / physiopathology*
  • Catatonia / psychology*
  • Catatonia / therapy
  • Cerebral Cortex / drug effects
  • Cerebral Cortex / physiopathology*
  • Electroconvulsive Therapy / methods*
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Neural Inhibition / drug effects
  • Neural Inhibition / physiology*
  • Neuropsychological Tests / standards
  • Treatment Outcome