COMMUNICATION DISTURBANCES IN SCHIZOPHRENIA AND MANIA

Background: A ''natural language'' measure was developed for classifyi ng type and severity of communication disturbance in the speech of psy chotic patients by assessing their linguistic reference performance. M ethods: This measure was applied to speech samples of schizophrenic, m anic, and non-psychiatric subjects, and the groups were compared on le vels and types of communication failures. Results: The speech of the s chizophrenic and manic subjects contained much higher frequencies of e ach of six types of communication failures than did the speech of the control subjects. Proportions of the different types of unclarity diff ered among the diagnostic groups. Conclusions: This method provides a measure of overall severity of communication disturbance, discriminate s the speech of schizophrenic and manic subjects from that of nonpsych iatric subjects, and reflects some differences in distribution of type s of communication failure in schizophrenic vs manic patients. The mea sure may be helpful in elucidating cognitive weaknesses underlying psy chotic communication failures.