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Thought, Language, and Communication in Schizophrenia: Diagnosis and Prognosis
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Thought, Language, and Communication in Schizophrenia: Diagnosis and Prognosis

Nancy C Andreasen and William M Grove
Schizophrenia bulletin, Vol.12(3), pp.348-359
1986
DOI: 10.1093/schbul/12.3.348
PMID: 3764356
url
https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/12.3.348View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

Using the Scale for the Assessment of Thought, Language, and Communication (TLC), we examined the frequency of "thought disorder" in 94 normal volunteers and 100 psychiatric patients (25 each suffering from manic disorder, schizoaffective disorder, schizophrenic disorder, disorganized type, and schizophrenic disorder, paranoid type). We observed the manics to have a substantial amount of thought disorder and the normals to have a modest amount, suggesting that thought disorder is probably not pathognomonic of schizophrenia. The patients with affective illness did, however, show a somewhat different pattern of abnormality. In particular, patients with affective psychosis have more prominent positive thought disorder, while the schizophrenic patients tend to have more negative thought disorder. Evaluation of the patients 6 months later indicated that most types of thought disorder remit in the manics, while they persist in the schizophrenics; patients with schizoaffective disorder also tend to improve substantially. The strongest predictor of outcome was the presence of negative thought disorder.

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