Catalepsy is a condition 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 relieve natural need. Psychiatrists consider this condition a sign of schizophrenia.
Features of the disease
Catalepsy is a pathology characterized by the fact that at the time of an attack a person freezes in a certain position for a rather long time with the suspension of all vital functions. You may even feel that the patient is dead. Doctors call this state “wax flexibility” because a person can be put in any uncomfortable position without much effort, which will remain until the end of such a seizure.
Such an attack gradually arises: first the cervical and facial muscles begin to numb, spreading to the lower extremities, and it ends in the reverse order. This condition can pass quickly, and can last for weeks or even months.
Quite often it is during a conversation that such a stupor happens. This condition causes such a strong muscle tension that the patient can easily be lifted by the heels and neck. At the time of the attack, a violation of consciousness occurs . If such an attack occurs with malignant schizophrenia, then the patient is aware of everything that happens. With the oneiric form, a person plunges into a world of illusions, which is complemented by fantastic phenomena.
Types of Catalepsy
In psychiatry, the following classification of catalepsy exists:
- 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 exposure to drugs;
- hypnotic - arises under the influence of suggestion (hypnosis).
Astral catalepsy, a trance state that occurs most often at night, should also be highlighted. Such a short-term impairment of consciousness is explained by many patients by the action of ghosts, witches or aliens. Official medicine defines this condition as a mental disorder.
Causes
Existing nervous diseases, for example, the catatonic type of schizophrenia, narcolepsy, contribute to the development of catalepsy. Such a deviation is usually characteristic of persons with increased suggestibility. An experienced hypnotist is able 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 over his body position due to the relaxation of skeletal muscles. The likely cause of the weakening of muscle tone is considered to be the transition from the wakeful phase to a state of paradoxical sleep, bypassing the "slow" and "fast" phases.
It is reliably known that if such a stupor occurs, this indicates cerebellar lesions associated with a violation of the frontal lobe of the brain. An infectious disease, such as paralytic polio, can also be a provoking factor.
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 attacked.
This disorder is accompanied by the following symptoms:
- decreased sensitivity to external and internal stimuli;
- echolalia (automatic repetition of the words heard);
- respiratory depression;
- echopraxia (repetition of seen gestures);
- decrease in heart rate.
An attack can last from one minute to several weeks, and sometimes months. Its development occurs suddenly. The disappearance of the stupor causes the patient violent emotional manifestations.
This disease is dangerous in that a person is able to lose mobility in a potentially dangerous place where there will be a threat to his health and life.
Diagnostics
Such a 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 required to do this. The symptoms of some motor disorders that occur with various brain lesions are very similar to this condition, so the doctor should be able to distinguish between them.
Catalepsy is a mental illness, so the patient’s emotional state must be taken into account during treatment. If he was constantly mocked, teased, or even humiliated, he would have to wait a long time for improvement.
To treat this disease, they use interactive imagogy - a technique consisting in working with the internal forces of the body. Its essence is that the patient in an unconscious state is set in motion images and bring them to a conscious level.
During such a psychotherapeutic procedure, the patient plunges into his inner world and through the arising images begins to understand his own problems and difficult situations. He tells the therapist about this, who oversees the patient’s semantic field.
The lack of information and energy interaction indicates 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 decipher the visions that arise during the vision session.
Output
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 amenable to treatment, during which the perception of the problem is corrected.