Longitudinal Symptom Burden and Pharmacologic Management of Catatonia in Autism with and without Profound Impairment: An Observational Study.

INTRODUCTION

Catatonia is a highly morbid psychomotor and affective disorder which can affect autistic individuals with and without profound impairment. Catatonic symptoms are treatable with pharmacotherapy and electroconvulsive therapy, but the longitudinal effectiveness of these treatments has not been described.

METHODS

We conducted a prospective observational cohort study of patients with autism and co-morbid catatonia who received outpatient care in a specialized outpatient clinic from July 1st, 2021 to May 31st, 2024. Data investigating pharmacologic interventions, and clinical measures including the Bush Francis Catatonia Rating Scale (BFCRS), Kanner Catatonia Severity Scale (KCS), Kanner Catatonia Examination (KCE), and Clinical Global Impression - Improvement (CGI-I) were collected.

RESULTS

Forty-five patients were identified with 39 (86.7%) meeting criteria for profound autism. All patients received pharmacotherapy. 44 (97.8%) were treated with benzodiazepines with a mean maximal daily dose of 17.4 mg (SD=15.8) lorazepam equivalents. Thirty-five patients (77.8%) required more than one medication class for treatment. Fourteen patients (31.1%) attempted to taper off benzodiazepines during the study period; of these, 5 patients (11.1%) were successfully tapered off, and the remaining 9 (17.8%) discontinued the taper due to a return of catatonic symptoms. Statistically significant improvement was observed across all clinical domains except the KCS. However, the majority remained symptomatic over the study period.

CONCLUSIONS

Despite clinical improvements while receiving the gold standard for psychopharmacologic management of catatonia, chronic symptoms remained for the majority of catatonia patients over the study period, and few were able to taper and discontinue benzodiazepine treatment.