The Relationship Between Catatonic-Delirious States and Schizophrenia, in the Light of a Follow-up Study (Stauder's Lethal Catatonia)

Abstract

The syndrome of acute catatonic delirium associated with fever and usually with a fatal outcome was reported over hundred years ago. The first to describe it was Calmeil in 1832 (cit. after Aronson and Thompson, 1950). Kraepelin (1904) includes these states in the group of “akute Verwirrtheit”. Most authors emphasize the acuteness and high mortality of these states. Thus Claude and Cuel (1927), Guiraud and Saunet (1938), Golse and Morel (1953), call them “délire aigu”, de Simone (1962) “catatonie pernicieuse”, Stauder (1934) “tödliche Katatonie”, Huber (1954) “lebens-bedrohliche Katatone psychosen”, Knoll (1954) “perniziose Katatonien”. English writers call them “acute lethal catatonia” (Fisher and Greiner, 1960), Scandinavian “delirium acutum” (Lingjaerde, 1954). In Russian journals one finds them described as “delirium acutum” (Agieeva et al., 1955; Molokhov, 1962), “ostrij bried” (Rohlenko, 1961) or more recently “hypertoxic schizophrenia” (Romasienko, 1962).