Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 January 2018
Although a rare form of ‘lethal’ catatonia, involving high temperature and rigidity, was first described long before the advent of neuroleptic drugs, Delay's description of a syndrome malin in 1960 is usually regarded as the first recognition of this syndrome. Over the next 20 years the number of case reports grew and the appearance of reviews such as Caroff's in 1980 marked the birth of the neuroleptic malignant syndrome (NMS). Reports of its incidence give variation rates of up to fiftyfold, possibly due to differences in diagnostic criteria, and mortality reports are similarly variable. Although it is debatable whether it is a rare, severe idiosyncrasy or one of many neuromuscular side-effects of dopamine antagonists (Levinson & Simpson, 1986), most clinicians nowadays regard it as a serious but recognisable risk of neuroleptic treatment which merits further attention.
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