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- In medicine, an abnormal state in which the
- patient is apparently or actually unconscious
- and the muscles become rigid. There is no
- response to stimuli, and the rate of
- heartbeat and breathing is slow. A similar
- condition can be drug-induced or produced by
- hypnosis, but catalepsy as ordinarily
- understood occurs spontaneously in epilepsy,
- schizophrenia, and other nervous disorders.
- It is essentially an extreme form of
- resistive stupor, generally considered to be
- a defence against the environment or reality.
-