Catalepsy is a state when a person is as if in a dream, while his sensitivity to external and internal influences decreases. This phenomenon is quite rare. A person is in a state of immobility for a long time, even in a very uncomfortable position. He does not react to pain at all, does not feel hunger, does not pay attention to sounds, does not seek to cope with natural needs. Psychiatrists consider this condition a sign of schizophrenia.
Features of the disease
Catalepsy is a pathology characterized by the fact that at the moment of an attack a person freezes in a certain position for quite a long time with the suspension of all vital functions. It may even feel like the patient is dead. Doctors call this condition "waxy flexibility" because a person can be placed in any uncomfortable position without much effort, which will persist until the end of such an attack.
Such an attack occurs gradually: first, the neck and facial muscles begin to numb, spreading to the lower extremities, and it ends in the reverse order. This condition can pass quickly, or it can last for weeks or even months.
Quite often, it is during a conversation that such a stupor occurs. This condition causes such strong muscle tension that the patient can easily be lifted by the heels and the back of the head. At the time of the attack there is a violation of consciousness. If such an attack occurs in malignant schizophrenia, then the patient is aware of everything that is happening. With the oneiroid form, a person plunges into a world of illusions, which is complemented by fantastic phenomena.
Types of catalepsy
In psychiatry, there is the following classification of catalepsy:
- simple - in this case, the patient sees and hears everything, but cannot move;
- rigid - manifested by increased muscle tone and their resistance to any changes in the position of the body or its parts;
- pharmacological - caused by the effects of drugs;
- hypnotic - occurs under the influence of suggestion (hypnosis).
Also, special mention should be made of astral catalepsy, a trance state that occurs most often at night. Many patients explain such a short-term disturbance of consciousness by the action of ghosts, witches or aliens. This condition is defined by official medicine as a mental disorder.
Reasons
Contribute to the development of catalepsy existing nervous diseases, for example, catatonic variety of schizophrenia, narcolepsy. Such a deviation is usually characteristic of persons with increased suggestibility. Experienced Hypnotistable to easily provoke a cataleptic attack in such a person.
This pathology can also develop as a result of a hysterical trance. Many researchers regard catalepsy as one of the varieties of narcolepsy. The patient loses control of his body position due to relaxation of the skeletal muscles. The likely cause of the weakening of muscle tone is the transition from the wakefulness phase to the state of paradoxical sleep, bypassing the "slow" and "fast" phases.
It is reliably known that if such a stupor occurs, this indicates damage to the cerebellum associated with a violation of the frontal lobe of the brain. An infectious disease, such as paralytic poliomyelitis, can also be a trigger.
Symptoms
Cataleptic seizures are characterized by complete immobilization and a strong increase in muscle tone. The patient for a long time is in the position in which he was caught by an attack.
This disorder is accompanied by the following symptoms:
- reduced sensitivity to external and internal stimuli;
- echolalia (automatic repetition of words heard);
- breath slower;
- echopraxia (repetition of seen gestures);
- decrease in heart rate.
An attack can last from one minute to several weeks, and sometimes months. Its development is sudden. The disappearance of stupor causes violent emotional manifestations in the patient.
This disease is dangerous because a person is able to losemobility in a potentially dangerous place where there will be a threat to his he alth and life.
Diagnosis
This pathological condition is diagnosed on the basis of a collected history and a thorough psychiatric and neurological examination.
Treatment
Since catalepsy is caused by nervous diseases, in no case can it be treated independently, only a psychiatrist is obliged to do this. The symptoms of some movement disorders that occur with various brain lesions are very similar to this condition, so the doctor must be able to distinguish between them.
Catalepsy is a mental illness, therefore, in the process of treatment, the emotional state of the patient must be taken into account. If he was constantly ridiculed, teased or even humiliated, it will take quite a long time to improve.
For the treatment of this disease, interactive imagogics is used - a technique that consists in working with the internal forces of the body. Its essence is that the patient in an unconscious state is set in motion by images and brought to a conscious level.
During such a psychotherapeutic procedure, the patient plunges into his inner world and through the images that have arisen begins to understand his own problems and difficult situations. He tells the therapist about this, who observes the patient's semantic field.
Lack of information and energy interactionindicates that the images were "fantasized", that is, the problem is fictitious or it is gone. True images coming from the depths are always accompanied by a semantic field. A highly qualified psychotherapist is able to correctly decipher the visions that occur during the session.
Conclusion
Thus, catalepsy is a mental illness, the treatment of which should be carried out only in a specialized clinic under the supervision of an experienced doctor. This is an extremely unpleasant mental disorder, dangerous for its suddenness. It is difficult, but treatable, during which the perception of the problem is corrected.
