Announcing: A New Blog To Foster Knowledge On Catatonia

And Celebrating the 25th Anniversary 

Of 

 Publication of the Bush-Francis Catatonia Rating Scale 

We are pleased to announce the launch of the Catatonia Forum Blog. 

This Catatonia Forum Blog and a related Catatonia Information Center website [www.catatonia.org] have been developed to expand the awareness and knowledge about this important syndrome, to afford improved recognition and treatment for patients suffering from this condition. While catatonia is often readily treatable when recognized, it can lead to a variety of complications and may even become chronic. 

2021 marks the 25th year anniversary of the publication of the Bush-Francis Catatonia Rating Scale [BFCRS], which was part of a two-paper set published in the Acta Scandinavica, as shown above. The first paper introduced the rating scale and described its psychometric properties. The second paper provided the first quantitative data using the BFCRS to monitor treatments for catatonia, and also introduced what has become the “lorazepam challenge test” --by which a diagnosis can be confirmed. 

Both the BFCRS and the challenge test are used world-wide for clinical care and also in research. They have become the standard tools of the field. 

Scientific citations of the BFCRS in published medical literature have grown impressively since it was published and entered widespread use for research and clinical care. As shown in the figure below, it continues to be widely used and cited. 

We have invited scholars of catatonia to provide commentary for this introduction of the Catatonia Forum Blog, and to reflect on the publication of these papers. 

We are pleased that Dr Max Fink, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Neurology from SUNY Stony Brook who has been a seminal figure in advancing catatonia [and a co-author on these papers] agreed to provide the inaugural commentary.