Catatonia, schizophrenia, and affective disorders - Diagnostic associations in different cultural settings

The nosological status of catatonia in modern classificatory systems and the influence of culture on its presentation are not fully understood. A secondary analysis of the data collected for another study that looked at the incidence of catatonia in India and Wales was performed to examine the association of catatonia to ICD 10 F diagnostic categories in two different cultural settings. The most common clinical diagnosis assigned by clinicians in India was from ICD10 F 20, while in Wales it was from ICD10 F30. The differences between the two settings were found in the F20 group. Association of catatonia appears to be more consistent with affective disorders in the two settings, but not with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. The findings are subjected to the limitations of secondary analysis.