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Effects of Social Cognitive Impairment on Speech Disorder in Schizophrenia
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Effects of Social Cognitive Impairment on Speech Disorder in Schizophrenia

Nancy M Docherty, Amanda McCleery, Marielle Divilbiss, Emily B Schumann, Aubrey Moe and Mohammed K Shakeel
Schizophrenia bulletin, Vol.39(3), pp.608-616
05/2013
DOI: 10.1093/schbul/sbs039
PMCID: PMC3627757
PMID: 22416265
url
https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbs039View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

Disordered speech in schizophrenia impairs social functioning because it impedes communication with others. Treatment approaches targeting this symptom have been limited by an incomplete understanding of its causes. This study examined the process underpinnings of speech disorder, assessed in terms of communication failure. Contributions of impairments in 2 social cognitive abilities, emotion perception and theory of mind (ToM), to speech disorder were assessed in 63 patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder and 21 nonpsychiatric participants, after controlling for the effects of verbal intelligence and impairments in basic language-related neurocognitive abilities. After removal of the effects of the neurocognitive variables, impairments in emotion perception and ToM each explained additional variance in speech disorder in the patients but not the controls. The neurocognitive and social cognitive variables, taken together, explained 51% of the variance in speech disorder in the patients. Schizophrenic disordered speech may be less a concomitant of “positive” psychotic process than of illness-related limitations in neurocognitive and social cognitive functioning.
emotion perception social cognition theory of mind Regular speech disorder language schizophrenia

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