ECT Treatment of Malignant Catatonia/NMS in an Adolescent: A Useful Lesson in Delayed Diagnosis and Treatment

Abstract

A 17-year-old adolescent female presented to a psychiatric emergency room with excitement, confusion, and psychotic symptoms. After brief exposure to haloperidol and olanzapine, she developed fever, rigidity, waxy flexibility, autonomic instability, and elevated creatinine phosphokinase enzyme. Approximately 6 weeks after the onset of the illness, multiple laboratory tests, and evaluation at three different hospitals, the condition was effectively treated with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). This case is a lesson in delayed recognition and the delayed use of ECT for the malignant catatonia/neuroleptic malignant syndrome.