{"id":3497,"date":"2026-04-20T18:35:39","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T18:35:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/?p=3497"},"modified":"2026-04-20T18:36:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T18:36:19","slug":"ect-for-pediatric-catatonia-in-neurodevelopmental-populations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/?p=3497","title":{"rendered":"ECT for Pediatric Catatonia in Neurodevelopmental Populations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>By Danielle W. Lowe, MD, PhD<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Catatonia is increasingly recognized as a comorbid condition in neurodevelopmental populations with some estimates of 10% prevalence in Autism (1). A pediatric catatonia clinical assessment and treatment pathway was published this year (2) and highlighted the use of the Pediatric Catatonia Rating Scale (PCRS) as an alternative to the Bush-Francis Catatonia Rating Scale (BFCRS) in minors (3).&nbsp; Autism specific catatonia scales (4) or other catatonia scales can be used in neurodivergent populations with scoring compared to a patient\u2019s baseline function.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is the treatment of choice in minors with poor response to lorazepam, symptoms of malignant catatonia, or 72 hours of poor oral intake (4). While there are many barriers for ECT in minors due to state regulations and access to care, ECT is well tolerated in minors and neurodivergent patients to stabilize catatonia symptoms. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/articles\/PMC8792870\/\">https:\/\/pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/articles\/PMC8792870\/<\/a>\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.jaclp.2026.03.007\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.jaclp.2026.03.007<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/27377978\/\">https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/27377978\/<\/a>\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/28150394\/\">https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/28150394\/<\/a>\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/34424874\/\">https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/34424874\/<\/a>\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Danielle W. Lowe, MD, PhD Catatonia is increasingly recognized as a comorbid condition in neurodevelopmental populations with some estimates of 10% prevalence in Autism (1). A pediatric catatonia clinical assessment and treatment pathway was published this year (2) and highlighted the use of the Pediatric Catatonia Rating Scale (PCRS) as an alternative to the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[80],"class_list":["post-3497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-spring-2026"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v16.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>ECT for Pediatric Catatonia in Neurodevelopmental Populations - PSV News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/?p=3497\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"ECT for Pediatric Catatonia in Neurodevelopmental Populations - PSV News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Danielle W. Lowe, MD, PhD Catatonia is increasingly recognized as a comorbid condition in neurodevelopmental populations with some estimates of 10% prevalence in Autism (1). A pediatric catatonia clinical assessment and treatment pathway was published this year (2) and highlighted the use of the Pediatric Catatonia Rating Scale (PCRS) as an alternative to the [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/?p=3497\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"PSV News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-20T18:35:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-20T18:36:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ray Hall\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/\",\"name\":\"PSV News\",\"description\":\"Psychiatric Society of Virginia Newsletters\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/?p=3497#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/?p=3497\",\"name\":\"ECT for Pediatric Catatonia in Neurodevelopmental Populations - PSV News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-20T18:35:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-20T18:36:19+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/#\/schema\/person\/b3ff623305ba59e337e22c31c9fc42e7\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/?p=3497#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/?p=3497\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/?p=3497#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"ECT for Pediatric Catatonia in Neurodevelopmental Populations\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/#\/schema\/person\/b3ff623305ba59e337e22c31c9fc42e7\",\"name\":\"Ray Hall\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/77c2e3f00618d6950c250a915344c15d9f601fb38bd861cae3882e3489cd7d18?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/77c2e3f00618d6950c250a915344c15d9f601fb38bd861cae3882e3489cd7d18?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Ray Hall\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/?author=3\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"ECT for Pediatric Catatonia in Neurodevelopmental Populations - PSV News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/?p=3497","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"ECT for Pediatric Catatonia in Neurodevelopmental Populations - PSV News","og_description":"By Danielle W. Lowe, MD, PhD Catatonia is increasingly recognized as a comorbid condition in neurodevelopmental populations with some estimates of 10% prevalence in Autism (1). A pediatric catatonia clinical assessment and treatment pathway was published this year (2) and highlighted the use of the Pediatric Catatonia Rating Scale (PCRS) as an alternative to the [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/?p=3497","og_site_name":"PSV News","article_published_time":"2026-04-20T18:35:39+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-04-20T18:36:19+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ray Hall","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/","name":"PSV News","description":"Psychiatric Society of Virginia Newsletters","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/?p=3497#webpage","url":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/?p=3497","name":"ECT for Pediatric Catatonia in Neurodevelopmental Populations - PSV News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/#website"},"datePublished":"2026-04-20T18:35:39+00:00","dateModified":"2026-04-20T18:36:19+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/#\/schema\/person\/b3ff623305ba59e337e22c31c9fc42e7"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/?p=3497#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/news.psva.org\/?p=3497"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/?p=3497#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"ECT for Pediatric Catatonia in Neurodevelopmental Populations"}]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/#\/schema\/person\/b3ff623305ba59e337e22c31c9fc42e7","name":"Ray Hall","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/#personlogo","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/77c2e3f00618d6950c250a915344c15d9f601fb38bd861cae3882e3489cd7d18?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/77c2e3f00618d6950c250a915344c15d9f601fb38bd861cae3882e3489cd7d18?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Ray Hall"},"url":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/?author=3"}]}},"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Ray Hall","author_link":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/?author=3"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3497\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.psva.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}