AFFECTIVE REACTIVITY OF SPEECH IN SCHIZOPHRENIA-PATIENTS AND THEIR NONSCHIZOPHRENIC RELATIVES

This study compared levels of referential communication disturbance in speech samples from 41 stable schizophrenia outpatients, 46 parents o f patients, and 23 nonpsychiatric control participants in affectively positive versus affectively negative conditions. The speech of the pat ients and parents showed elevated frequencies of reference failures in the affectively positive condition compared with control participants ; the speech of the patients became more disordered in the affectively negative condition, whereas the speech of the parents did not. These results support the idea that referential communication disturbances r eflect vulnerability, as well as overt illness, but that affective rea ctivity of these disturbances is associated mainly with the manifest i llness. These findings are consistent with biological, cognitive, and psychological theories about the processes underlying stress responsiv eness of schizophrenic symptoms more generally.