A Case of Lethal Catatonia in a Child

ABSTRACT

Lethal catatonia is a life-threatening febrile neuropsychiatric syndrome, mainly consist of bizzare behavior, mounting fever, extreme hyperactivity, stuporous exhaustion and evenlual death. Although the entity has been reported in the literaure for over 160 years, the rarity of the illness makes prompt recognition being very difficult tasks, particularly in young children. We experienced a typical case of lethal catatonia in 7-year-old boy who previously had no organic illness. Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) was the most successful mode of treatment among many therapies attempted. We feel that this could be the youngest case in the literature of lethal catatonia.