What is Catatonic Schizophrenia? Catatonic schizophrenia is not a separate diagnosis in modern psychiatry anymore. From 2013 onward (DSM-5 and ICD-11), the subtype “catatonic schizophrenia” was eliminated because catatonia turned out to be a syndrome that can appear in many different disorders, not just schizophrenia. Instead, clinicians now use: Schizophrenia (as the main diagnosis), and Add the specifier “with catatonia” if the catatonic features are prominent. So when people today say “catato