A case report documented improvement with lorazepam after catatonia emerged during recovery from acute illness following chemotherapy; the cause remained multifactorial.
The report concerned a 75-year-old woman with schizophrenia in remission who received docetaxel-based treatment for breast cancer. Subsequent vomiting, poor intake, acute kidney injury, and delirium complicated her course. Her antipsychotic treatment was initially withheld during renal impairment and later restarted.
Catatonic features appeared during the admission, including stupor, staring, echolalia, stereotypy, and waxy flexibility. The authors recorded an initial Bush–Francis Catatonia Rating Scale score of 23. They described no accompanying psychotic relapse pattern that would simply explain the presentation as recurrent schizophrenia.
An oral lorazepam challenge produced a positive response. The patient then received scheduled lorazepam alongside risperidone and ongoing medical care. By the twenty-ninth admission day, the catatonia score had fallen to two, and the authors described clinical resolution.
During two months of follow-up, the score transiently rose to nine after the kidney injury and delirium had resolved. Lorazepam was increased, and the score returned to two. This later episode added useful temporal information: the catatonic symptoms were not limited to the period of acute renal dysfunction.
The authors considered taxane-associated central neurotoxicity as a possible contributor. However, chemotherapy exposure, acute illness, delirium, preexisting neurological disease, psychiatric history, and changes in medication all occurred in the same patient. A lorazepam response supports the clinical assessment of a benzodiazepine-responsive syndrome; it does not identify which preceding factor caused that syndrome.
The case therefore should not be summarized as proving that docetaxel causes catatonia or that lorazepam alone explains every aspect of recovery.
The report illustrates the value of a timeline that distinguishes delirium, psychosis, and catatonia and records serial response measures. Its evidence is one patient’s observed course, with co-treatment and medical recovery. It cannot estimate incidence, compare treatment efficacy, or provide a universal lorazepam regimen. The doses reported describe this case rather than a treatment instruction for another patient.
Original analysis of the supplied journal article, identified as PMC13086532.