Neuroleptic malignant syndrome in children and adolescents: Systematic review of case reports.

INTRODUCTION

Neuroleptic malignant syndrome (NMS) is a rare and potentially fatal drug adverse reaction. There are still few studies of this entity in the child-adolescent population.

OBJECTIVES

Describe the clinical, laboratory and therapeutic characteristics of children and adolescent patients with NMS. Analyse the grouping of symptoms present in NMS in the same population.

MATERIAL AND

METHODS

A MEDLINE/PubMed search of all reported cases of NMS from January 2000 to November 2018 was performed and demographic, clinical, laboratory and therapeutic variables were identified. A factorial analysis of the symptoms was performed.

RESULTS

57 patients (42 males and 15 females) were included, (mean age 13.65 ± 3.89 years). The onset of NMS occurred at 11.25 ± 20.27 days with typical antipsychotics and at 13.69 ± 22.43 days with atypical antipsychotics. The most common symptoms were muscle stiffness (84.2%), autonomic instability (84.2%) and fever (78.9). The most common laboratory findings were CPK elevation and leucocytosis (42.1%). The most used treatment was benzodiazepines (28.1%). In the exploratory factorial analysis of the symptoms we found 3 factors: 1) "Catatonic" with mutism (0.912), negativism (0.825) and waxy flexibility (0.522); 2) "Extrapyramidal" with altered gait (0.860), involuntary abnormal movements (0.605), muscle stiffness (0.534) and sialorrhoea (0.430); and 3) "Autonomic instability" with fever (0.798), impaired consciousness (0.795) and autonomic instability (0.387).

CONCLUSIONS

NMS in children and adolescents could be of 3 types: catatonic, extrapyramidal and autonomic unstable.