Catalepsy

Catalepsy, nervous condition characterized by loss of voluntary motion and by a plastic rigidity of the muscles. The cataleptic state may occur as a symptom in epilepsy, narcolepsy, or schizophrenia and occasionally in conversion disorder (a form of mental disorder). Although circulation, respiration, digestion, and similar organic functions continue, they may be so reduced as to be almost imperceptible. In such cases catalepsy may resemble death, but ordinary tests are sufficient to distinguish it, even though sensibility to pain or heat may be lost.