Can a response to lorazepam identify the cause of catatonia in one patient?
A response after medication can be clinically informative. If other treatments change over the same period, the timeline alone cannot isolate the effect of one drug.
What the clinicians observed
The case concerned a 78-year-old woman with Parkinson’s disease and a history of depression who presented after stopping her medications. Clinicians described catatonia and psychotic symptoms. They started lorazepam and restarted levodopa. Both symptom clusters resolved within six days of starting lorazepam. The workup also identified acromegaly associated with a pituitary macroadenoma.
How to read the sequence
The report documents improvement during a course that included more than one intervention. The clinical record can still clarify when each drug was restarted, which symptoms changed first and what alternatives were considered. That chronology can support a differential explanation, while one case provides no controlled comparison of lorazepam alone, levodopa alone or spontaneous improvement.
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