Catatonia in Adolescence: First Onset Psychosis or Anti-NMDAr Encephalitis?

Abstract

Catatonia is a rare condition that can occur in developmental disorders, but it is more frequently seen in schizophrenia. Recently, a high prevalence of cerebrospinal fluid abnormalities including the detection of antineuronal autoantibodies has been observed in psychotic patients. Among these autoimmune encephalopathies associated with a psychiatric condition, a great deal of attention has been paid to anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAr) encephalitis, which may present, among other things, symptoms such as catatonia, which therefore imposes a differential diagnosis with respect to the early psychosis. The aim of our study was to describe the clinical characteristics of 4 cases with catatonic symptoms to understand the differences between the psychotic symptoms due to a type of encephalitis anti-NMDAr and the psychotic symptoms without anti-NMDAr.