Althoughen shown to be acutely responsive to several interventions, including benzodiazepines and electroconvulsive therapy,1,2 some individuals do not respond to these interventions. A review of the literature does not reveal previous reports of catatonia treated with risperidone. Therefore, we report the response to risperidone of a patient with persistent organic catatonia.
Report of a Case.
Mr A's initial symptoms occurred during graduate school after the death of a close friend. He had a severe flulike illness for which he required residence for several weeks in the college infirmary. However, he was able to complete his PhD program in mathematics. When he was 31 years old, he had an apparent episode of catatonic excitement, followed by catatonic stupor. The initial course of catatonic stupor was episodic, but catatonic stupor became constant by the time he was 45 years old. His initial computed tomographic scan revealed discrete bilateral orbitofrontal atrophy, which