Elizabeth was a catatonic schizophrenic who did not speak or move, except for some waxy posturing.
Like Shakespeare's King Lear he courts death and madness in a great storm, then commits mass murder, collapses in catatonic paralysis, and suicidally runs his ship into the ocean's most dangerous whirlpool.
However, the exact relationship of these cognitive deficits to catatonic symptoms remains unclear.
Neurochemistry studies supported by functional brain imaging have also provided insight into types of cerebral dysfunction responsible for producing the catatonic syndrome.
To my knowledge, no study specifically investigating catatonic syndrome (and not only catatonic schizophrenia as a subtype) has been published so far.
Because grossly disorganized and catatonic behaviors were prominent, the patient was given 5 mg of intravenous haloperidol.
It is possible that a disruption of this supervisory function at the anterior cingulate is responsible for the catatonic symptoms.
Paranoid delusions and auditory hallucinations were the predominant features, with formal thought disorder, catatonic features and negative symptoms being uncommon.
