Severe hypernatremia within the scope of catatonic schizophrenia

We report the case of a 57-year-old chronic schizophrenic patient who developed an acute catatonic stupor after postoperative withdrawal of neuroleptics with excessive and firstly therapy-resistant hypernatremia. Only after re-treatment with neuroleptics the hypernatremia could be compensated. A relationship between the catatonic schizophrenia and the electrolyte-disturbances can be supposed; probably in both diencephalic structures are involved. Therefore the syndrome of "acute life threatening catatonia" should be included into the differential diagnosis of uncertain metabolic disorders.