system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
What is going on in psychiatric patients with catatonic schizophrenia?
gpt
There is research to suggest that there is a neurological basis for catatonic symptoms for instance motor disturbance is less responsive to treatment in schizophrenic patients, which separates it from the other purely psychotic symptoms.

Research into the presence of catatonia has also found that an earlier age of onset of illness and poorer overall functioning are associated with catatonic symptoms. These findings appear to suggest a developmental neurological basis for catatonia.

There is a case to be made for catatonia to be recognized in its own right separate from schizophrenia, as the same motor symptoms appear in cases of toxic serotonin syndrome, adolescents with autism and delirious mania and is treatable with electroconvulsive therapy and benzodiazepines and recent research suggests the same neurological functions are the ones present in obsessive compulsive disease and a specific form of encephalitis.

>Why does catatonia occur?

Most probably it occurs due to a dopamine blockade. Without activity of inhibatory synapses the interconnections between neurons make the brain unstable, which is why there are GABA excreting neurons in the brain. If this particular chemical is not being excreted or not being received by neurons, there is no inhibition, and that is the cause of spasms and motor distortion - catatonia by itself can be effectively treated with benzodiazepines, barbiturates and ECT.