We want to find out if sodium oxybate is effective for psychiatric patients with catatonia who are in an acute psychiatric ward and have not responded to lorazepam treatment.
Our goal is to investigate whether sodium oxybate can be used as a new treatment for psychiatric patients with catatonia.
Who can participate?
Patients aged 18 years or older, with catatonia and a probable psychotic disorder, bipolar disorder or depressive disorder who do not respond to lorazepam, during 4 days of treatment with lorazepam.
What does the study involve?
The Laborit study combines two parts: a multicenter, prospective cohort study and a randomized, controlled trial (RCT). The cohort study will follow patients with catatonia who are admitted to psychiatric hospitals. This part of the study helps in recruiting patients for the RCT and allows us to describe the characteristics and progress of patients with catatonia and identify possible contributing factors.
1. All patients with catatonia will first receive standard care, which involves gradually increasing the dosage of lorazepam to a maximum of 24 mg per day over 4 days, until their catatonia symptoms improve.
2. If a patient’s catatonia symptoms do not improve with lorazepam, they will be randomly assigned to one of two groups for further treatment over the next 4 days:
Group 1: Continue with the high dose of lorazepam (21 patients).
Group 2: Switch to sodium oxybate (21 patients).
