Objective: to provide the description of researchers’ views evolution and provide the review of modern scientific literature on nosological affiliation and clinical features of catatonia. Material and methods: Scopus, PubMed, Cochrane Library, eLIBRARY databases were searched for literature (44 000 papers) using the keyword ‘catatonia‘. Based on the selection criteria, the search has been found the clinical cases, cohort and random studies, dedicated to psychopathologic description of catatonia, accompanied by affective disorders, autism and hysteria. 50 papers issued between 2000 and 2020 were selected for the analysis. Conclusions: catatonia, traditionally treated as a symptom of schizophrenia, currently is predominantly interpreted as a “transnosological syndrome”, which accompanies various (both mental and somatic) diseases. The clinical manifestations of catatonia in affective disorders, autism and hysteria have their own distinctive features, also the presence of catatonic symptoms is associated with a greater severity of the underlying disease, low quality of remissions, which explains why the experts are wary of the endogenic factors.

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The aim: to study the phenomenon of stereotypical catatonia in the clinical manifestations of schizophrenia throughout the disease process; to determine the relationship between the manifestation of catatonia, negative and cognitive symptoms and to establish the prognostic manifestations characteristics of endogenous process with a predominance of stereotypical catatonia.Patients and methods: 28 patients with a verified diagnosis of schizophrenia, developing with predominance in the clinical picture the phenomena of catatonia among the hypokinesia manifestations, firstly occurring in the form of ideomotor slowness, diminishing of facial expressions with the emergence of motor symptoms and grimacing, evolving on the basis of premorbid motor features.Results and discussion: a psychopathological description of the stereotypical catatonia phenomenon, manifesting itself as a psychomotor disorder, “evolving” on the basis of the motor and pathocharacterological constitution, duplicating and amplifying the manifestations of: a) negative symptoms with the formation of a general “motor-inactive syndrome”; b) cognitive symptoms with the formation of the pseudo-bradyphrenia — is given. The course of schizophrenia (and schizophrenia spectrum disorders) with a predominance of stereotypical catatonia is different. In some cases it’s a “single episode” type of schizophrenia, in other cases the disease develops in the form of the continuous (chronic) catatonic type of schizophrenia.Patients and methods

Background: the study of catatonia’s treatment methods is one of the most important researchers’ tasks, nevertheless the common therapeutic strategies of cupping the catatonic phenomena haven’t been created yet. The aim: review to therapeutic interventions for catatonic disorders in schizophrenia.Materials and methods: according to the keywords “catatonia treatment”, “catatonia therapy”, publications found in the Scopus, PubMed, Cochrane Library, eLibrary databases were selected and analyzed.Results: historical background, illustrating the development of catatonia treatment methods, is given; the results of the last decades scientific studies of catatonia’s treatment and preliminary results of own study, devoted to the effectiveness of diazepam and cariprazine in relieving catatonia manifestations are presented. Based on the studies’ results, presented in the review, it can be concluded that the most common modern method of treating catatonic disorders is the use of benzodiazepines, however, in some cases, the use of antipsychotics is also advisable. Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) remains an important treatment for catatonic phenomena. There are also isolated clinical cases of successful testing of both: other pharmacological groups (antidepressants, dopaminergic and anticholinergic drugs, normothymic drugs, etc.) and non-drug interventions (transcranial magnetic stimulation — TMS) presented in modern research data.Conclusion: the effectiveness of benzodiazepines in catatonia, associated with schizophrenia and schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD), remains controversial according to modern authors’ opinion. In turn, among antipsychotics, antipsychotics of the second and third generation seem to be safe for the treatment of psychomotor symptoms. In accordance with the results of our own study, catatonia in the structure of schizophrenia and SSD is heterogeneous and, depending on the psychopathological structure of catatonic disorders, a different reaction of psychomotor symptoms to therapeutic intervention was observed.