Acute Catatonic Syndrome Associated with Hyponatraemia

Abstract

Introduction

A 71 year old gentleman presented with two discrete episodes of delirium with prominent psychotic features and catatonia, over a 3-year period. Symptomatically, he was suffering from fluctuating consciousness, paranoid ideation and both auditory and visual hallucinations. He went on to develop catatonia, demonstrating negativism and mutism and he also exhibited pseudoseizures. His symptoms resolved entirely after three weeks. He re-presented 3 years later with profound psychosis and hyponatraemia. On this occasion, he exhibited catalepsy, negativism, echolalia and mutism, which resolved when his sodium was corrected.

Objectives/aims

To illustrate 2 episodes of acute catatonia temporally associated with hyponatraemia in an otherwise healthy elderly gentleman.

Methods

This is a case study. Consent was sought from the patient to write up his case and distribute it for educational purposes. His medical inpatient notes, psychiatric inpatient notes, correspondence and bloods pertaining to both admissions were reviewed and analysed. A literature review was carried out using Pubmed.

Results

Low sodium levels were a common factor in his presentations and normal sodium levels were associated with a return to normal consciousness.

Conclusions

While medical issues confounded his first presentation of hyponatraemia associated catatonia, his second presentation was directly related to hyponatraemia. Given the coincidence of hyponatraemia during his first admission, it would strongly suggest that low sodium levels were an important factor in this gentleman's presentation. Importantly, this is the first case in the literature to demonstrate catatonia related to hyponatraemia on two separate occasions in the same individual.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.