The most uncommon subtype of schizophrenia is catatonia. Although this kind of mental disorder is the rarest of the schizophrenias, it is perhaps the most disturbing to the people inflicted with the illness, and also to the families and friends who encounter the devastating disorder. Whereas paranoid and unorganized schizophrenia are disorders that effect mainly thought and speech behavior, catatonic schizophrenia not only disables speech and thought processes, but it is also a physically disabling illness. Catatonic schizophrenics experience many of the same symptoms as the other types, especially loosely attached thought and speech patterns and paranoia. Added to these symptoms, catatonic schizophrenics also experience extreme shifts between excited and withdrawn, stuporous motor behavior. These opposing states of physical activity, and the pronounced motor gestures are what characterize catatonic schizophrenia.In one experiment involving 250 patients, all with catatonic schizophrenia, 110 fall into the predominantly withdrawn class, 67 experience primarily excited symptoms, and 73 are considered mixed between behaving stuporous and excited (Morrison 1973).The most common state of catatonia, stupor, is characterized by a loss of all animation, and motionless, rigid, unchanging positions. People in a catatonic stupor will become sometimes become mute and stare into space, remaining still for sometimes hours or days, even until the hands and feet become blue and swollen (Carson, et al. 454). Trying to awaken a patient out of a catatonic stupor is virtually useless. Usually he or she will not acknowledge their surroundings, and will not respond to stimuli. Although during the stupor seems to be completely "out there" and unconnected to reality, some patients can even retell the accounts of the stupor and the reason, and what they were thinking at the time. One patient who remained motionless with one hand froze in the air, parallel to...
