Diagnostic trajectories of pediatric catatonia – A unicentric study

Abstract Background: Catatonia is a severe neuropsychiatric syndrome characterized by marked psychomotor retardation. Catatonia is associated with high morbidity and mortality in children; however, much of the understanding comes from the adult subset of the population. The diagnosis and management of pediatric catatonia pose unique challenges. This study looks into an exclusive cohort of catatonia in the pediatric age range. The profiling of this cohort and tracking their diagnostic trajectories will add to the current evidence pool to help establish a consensus guideline for early evaluation and management of pediatric catatonia in a low-resource setting. Methodology: The 2-year clinical data were gathered retrospectively using purposive sampling from the database of the child and adolescent psychiatry outpatient registry of a tertiary care center based in South India.