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The Clinical Features and Outcome of Stupor

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

M. P. Joyston-Bechal*
Affiliation:
The London Hospital, London, E.1

Extract

Stupor is an unusual but striking phenomenon, generally recognized but difficult to define in precise clinical terms. A large literature exists on the diverse conditions in which it may occur, but there is little information on differentiating one cause from another, or on the prevalence of these causes. This insufficiency extends to the phenomenology of stupor, where descriptive criteria are not always adequate for separating stupor from allied states. Such difficulties are reflected in a current text book by Merskey and Tonge (1965). The authors only recognize stupor if there is total akinesis, where it is assumed that the diagnosis is schizophrenia. Depressive stupor is not recognized as an entity.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1966 

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