Successful ECT in a case of Leonhard's cycloid psychosis

In Leonhard's nosological system, acute, episodic psychoses with good short-term and long-term prognoses, characterized by mixed affective and schizophrenic features, confusion, and alternating psychomotor retardation and excitement are called cycloid psychoses. According to clinical lore, patients with cycloid psychoses show an excellent and prompt response to electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). We describe a patient with typical motility psychosis, a subtype of cycloid psychoses, who failed to respond to a combination of antipsychotic and benzodiazepine medication but quickly recovered after the administration of ECT.