Abstract

Packing therapy is an adjunct symptomatic treatment used in autism and/ or catatonia that has not been systematically assessed. Since 1993, we have conducted at the Pitié-Salpétrière Hospital a prospective study on the phenomenology and psychopathology of catatonia in children and adolescents. Here, we reviewed the charts of all the catatonic patients who received packing therapy. During the study period, among the 44 patients included in the prospective series, 6 (5 males and 1 female) had packing during their stay. (i) Packing therapy appeared to be an interesting adjunct treatment in 4 patients; (ii) the main effect relied on the specific sensory/coenesthesic experience, it offered the patients who expressed and showed severe distortion in sensory and body image representation; (iii) overall tolerance and compliance were good. We conclude that packing seems to be a feasible and interesting adjunct treatment in catatonia providing that the consent could be obtained from the patient and a significant relative as a parent. Given the limitations of this study (small sample size, retrospective design, no blind assessment, confounding concurrent pharmacotherapy, no definition of responders), further clinical studies should be promoted to clarify its possible efficacy and underlying mechanism. © 2009 Giovanni Fioriti Editore s.r.l.