Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Psychiatry. Mar 19, 2025; 15(3): 102529
Published online Mar 19, 2025. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v15.i3.102529
Catatonia in an acute adult inpatient population in mental health units in Khartoum, Sudan: A cross-sectional study
Maysoon B Idrees, Abla M Elmahdi, Hatim Y Alharbi, Ishag Adam
Maysoon B Idrees, Abla M Elmahdi, Department of Psychiatry, Taha Bassshar Hospital, Khartoum 12217, Khartoum, Sudan
Hatim Y Alharbi, Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine, Qassim University, Buraydah 52389, Qassim, Saudi Arabia
Ishag Adam, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Qassim University, Buraydah 52389, Qassim, Saudi Arabia
Author contributions: Idrees MB and Adam I conceptualized the study, supervised the work, guided the analysis, and critically reviewed the manuscript; Elmahdi AM and Alharbi HY prepared the analysis plan, performed the data analysis, wrote the paper’s first draft, and supervised the data collection. All the authors reviewed and approved the final manuscript.
Supported by The Deanship of Graduate Studies and Scientific Research at Qassim University, No. QU-APC-2025.
Institutional review board statement: This study was conducted in compliance with the Declaration of Helsinki and good clinical research practices. This study received ethical approval from the research committee of the Council of Psychiatry Sudan Medical Specialization Board and the Ministry of Health’s Khartoum State Research Department (06 December 2021, # 17, 2021).
Informed consent statement: All participants or their caregivers (guardians) signed a written informed consent form. The authors followed all measures to ensure the subjects' privacy, confidentiality, and safety, such as excluding personal identifiers during the data collection.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have nothing to declare.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement-checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement- checklist of items.
Data sharing statement: The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available (because the manuscript is still under peer review) but are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Hatim Y Alharbi, MD, Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Qassim University, 3320 Abu baker al Siddiq Road, Buraydah 52389, Qassim, Saudi Arabia. hy.alharbi@qu.edu.sa
Received: October 21, 2024
Revised: December 20, 2024
Accepted: January 17, 2025
Published online: March 19, 2025
Processing time: 128 Days and 9.4 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Catatonic syndrome is a mental health issue, as well as a medical, neurological, and toxic condition. There are few published data on catatonic syndrome in African countries and none in Sudan, the third-largest African country.

AIM

To assess the prevalence and presenting symptoms of catatonic syndrome in an acute psychiatric inpatient population in four governmental psychiatric hospitals in Sudan.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study was conducted in four psychiatric hospitals in the capital, Khartoum, in Sudan. The data were collected using an interviewer-administered questionnaire tool, which included sociodemographic data (age, sex, educational level, marital status, and residence). Signs and symptoms of catatonic syndrome were assessed using the Bush–Francis Catatonia Rating Scale (BFCRS) and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) diagnostic criteria. χ² tests were used to compare categorized variables. Multivariate analysis was not performed because none of the variables were found to be different between patients with and without catatonic syndrome.

RESULTS

Of the 384 patients, 50.0% and 49.3% were males and females, respectively, and their median age was 30.0 years. One hundred and sixty-three (42.4%) patients had catatonic syndrome according to the BFCRS criteria. Of these patients, 104 fulfilled the DSM-5 criteria, with a 27.1% prevalence of catatonic syndrome. Echopraxia/echolalia (84.5%), mutism (71.2%), posturing/catalepsy (67.3%), and mannerisms (66.3%) were the main manifestations among patients with catatonic syndrome. There was no significant difference in age, sex, marital status, or job between patients with and those without catatonic syndrome. Of the 163 patients with catatonic syndrome, 31.3% had bipolar disorder, 28.2% had schizophrenia, and 19.6% had major depressive disorder.

CONCLUSION

Catatonic syndrome is highly prevalent in an acute psychiatric inpatient population in Sudan regardless of age or sex. Echopraxia/echolalia (84.5%) and mutism were the main manifestations among the patients with catatonic syndrome.

Keywords: Catatonia; Age; Female; Mental health; Sudan

Core Tip: This study highlights the prevalence of catatonia in Sudan and investigates the characteristics thereof. Echopraxia/echolalia and mutism are the main manifestations among patients with catatonia.