Catatonia due to a general medical condition may result from a variety of causes, including substance intoxication and withdrawal. Stimulants are occasionally associated with catatonia, though there has been little investigation of methamphetamine's relationship to catatonia. Here we present 5 cases of catatonia associated with methamphetamine use and a systematic review of the associated literature from 1943 to 2020.
Methods
We performed a systematic review of the literature and present 5 cases of catatonia evaluated using the Bush-Francis Catatonia Rating Scale and KANNER catatonia rating scale.
Results
Methamphetamine use was associated with catatonia in a small number of cases in the literature. However, some of these reports included other possible etiologies. The patients in our case series met DSM-5 criteria for catatonia due to a general medical condition, with all reporting recent methamphetamine use and testing positive for amphetamines on urine drug screen.
Conclusions
Given the ongoing rise in methamphetamine use in the United States, it is important that clinicians understand that methamphetamine use can be associated with catatonia. Patients with methamphetamine-associated catatonia may respond favorably to loraz-epam and require shorter hospital stays than other catatonic patients. Lastly, methamphetamine-associated catatonia highlights how alteration in dopamine function and projections maybe a critical neural mechanism underlying catatonia in general.
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