AFFECTIVE REACTIVITY OF LANGUAGE IN SCHIZOPHRENIA

Thirty acutely schizophrenic inpatients each provided two speech sampl es: one on affectively negative, ''high-stress'' topics and one on aff ectively positive, ''low-stress'' topics. We analyzed these using two different, established methods for assessment of deviance in natural l anguage, including clinical measures of thought disorder and linguisti c measures of reference performance. For the group as a whole, the spe ech on negative topics contained more disorder than did the speech on positive topics, as rated both clinically and linguistically, and thes e differences mere sizeable and highly significant, Level of language disturbance and degree of affective reactivity of language symptoms co rrelated positively with severity of the positive syndrome but were no t associated in either direction with negative syndrome severity. Affe ctive reactivity of symptoms is discussed as a variable potentially re levant to studies of psychophysiology and subtyping, in schizophrenia