SPECT cerebral en un paciente con catatonía: a propósito de un caso

Catatonia was originally described as a psychomotor disease by Karl Ludwig Kahlbaum in 1874. Initially it was considered as the motor manifestation of schizophrenia. However, during the last decades it has been documented its greater prevalence in affective disorders. In addition, we recently observed a renewed interest in this syndrome due to functional neuroimaging techniques, as these could be useful in the study of a probable correlate of cerebral dysfunction with catatonia. We report the case of a 49-year-old male patient, who presented severe depressive and catatonic symptoms simultaneously. He was treated with diazepam at 40 mg/day and venlafaxine 150 mg/day. Single photon emission computed tomography of brain showed signs of marked global frontal and parietal hypoperfusion. According to the scientific literature, catatonia could be associated with a dysfunction of the frontal lobes. The premotor and motor cortex would be functionally altered due to anomalies in cortical GABAergic control, which would also produce affective and behavioral symptoms.