Clinical and experimental analysis of motor phenomena in schizophrenia

Theo C. Manschreck

pp. 258-273

in: Manfred Spitzer, Michael A. Schwartz, Michael A. Schwartz (eds), Phenomenology, language & schizophrenia, Berlin, Springer, 1992

Abstract

Disturbed motor behavior in schizophrenia has been a hallmark of the disorder since it was first conceptualized in the nineteenth century. Well before the clinical introduction of neuroleptic medication in the 1950s, psychiatrists and others had documented numerous movement anomalies, voluntary and involuntary, which affected the limbs, the whole body, posture, coordination, and purposeful behavior (Kraepelin 1919). Despite the array of descriptions, we have remarkably limited knowledge of the pathogenesis of these movements or their relationship to other features of schizophrenia (Manschreck 1986).