This case report concerns a 54-year-old woman with catatonic schizophrenia, characterized by treatment resistance to pharmacotherapy with olanzapine, risperidone and flunitrazepam, and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). In this case, olanzapine and risperidone and flunitrazepam did not improve her catatonic and psychotic symptoms, and induced extrapyramidal symptoms. The effects of ECT did not continue even for a month. However, treatment with low-dose aripiprazole dramatically improved the patient’s psychotic symptoms and extrapyramidal symptoms. The mechanisms underlying the effects of low-dose aripiprazole in this case remain unclear, but unlike other antipsychotics aripiprazole is a dopamine D2 partial agonist. In this regard, our results suggest that aripiprazole has numerous advantages, especially in cases of stuporous catatonia and a defective general status such as the present case.