Catatonia in autism and other neurodevelopmental disabilities: a state-of-the-art review

Shavon Moore; Debha N Amatya; Michael M Chu; Aaron D Besterman

doi:10.1038/s44184-022-00012-9

Catatonia in autism and other neurodevelopmental disabilities: a state-of-the-art review

Npj Ment Health Res. 2022 Sep 14;1(1):12. doi: 10.1038/s44184-022-00012-9.

Authors

Shavon Moore^#^{1

2}, Debha N Amatya^#^{1

3}, Michael M Chu^{1

2

4

5}, Aaron D Besterman^{6

7

8}

Affiliations

¹ University of California San Diego, Department of Psychiatry, San Diego, CA, USA.
² Rady Children's Hospital San Diego, Division of Behavioral Health Services, San Diego, CA, USA.
³ UCLA Semel Institute of Neuroscience and Human Behavior, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
⁴ Children's Hospital of Orange County, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Orange, CA, USA.
⁵ University of California Irvine, Department of Psychiatry, Irvine, CA, USA.
⁶ University of California San Diego, Department of Psychiatry, San Diego, CA, USA. abesterman@health.ucsd.edu.
⁷ Rady Children's Hospital San Diego, Division of Behavioral Health Services, San Diego, CA, USA. abesterman@health.ucsd.edu.
⁸ Rady Children's Institute for Genomic Medicine, San Diego, CA, USA. abesterman@health.ucsd.edu.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Individuals with neurodevelopmental disabilities (NDDs) may be at increased risk for catatonia, which can be an especially challenging condition to diagnose and treat. There may be symptom overlap between catatonia and NDD-associated behaviors, such as stereotypies. The diagnosis of catatonia should perhaps be adjusted to address symptom overlap and to include extreme behaviors observed in patients with NDDs, such as severe self-injury. Risk factors for catatonia in individuals with NDDs may include trauma and certain genetic variants, such as those that disrupt SHANK3. Common etiologic features between neurodevelopmental disabilities and catatonia, such as excitatory/inhibitory imbalance and neuroimmune dysfunction, may partially account for comorbidity. New approaches leveraging genetic testing and neuroimmunologic evaluation may allow for more precise diagnoses and effective treatments.

Publication types

Review