ABSTRACT
No disponible
Subject(s)
Humans , Hallucinations/complications , Hallucinations/etiology , Schizophrenia/diagnosis , Schizophrenia/physiopathology , Models, Neurological , Memory Disorders/physiopathology , Neuropsychological Tests , Geriatric Psychiatry/instrumentationSubject(s)
Hallucinations/physiopathology , Schizophrenia/physiopathology , Schizophrenic Psychology , Adult , Auditory Perception , Case-Control Studies , Female , Hallucinations/psychology , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Models, Psychological , Speech , Speech Perception , Task Performance and AnalysisABSTRACT
Very few studies have investigated the formal linguistic aspects of auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs), though speech is a defining aspect of AVHs. Hallucinated speech heard by 19 patients with schizophrenia and highly frequent voices was obtained online, as and when they spoke, and annotated for pre-selected linguistic variables. Results showed that, consistently across the sample, (i) the grammatical first Person was significantly less represented than both second and third person, and often absent altogether; (ii) overwhelmingly, isolated clauses with no grammatical connectivity (parataxis) were produced, as compared with subordinations, coordinations, and adjunctions; (iii) in all participants except one, virtually no noun phrases (NPs) were anaphoric ones, back-referring to previous NPs, illustrating again a lack of connectivity across utterances. (vi) Sentence-level content was largely personal rather than impersonal, and in impersonal utterances, it was generally vague. (v) Formal syntactic errors were consistently nearly absent, as were semantic level errors such as paraphasias. Voice talk was not generally stereotyped. These results indicate that, despite a certain amount of individual variation, there is a distinctive linguistic profile to voice speech, which constrains theories of AVHs and their neurocognitive basis.
Subject(s)
Hallucinations , Linguistics , Speech , Adult , Female , Humans , Male , Middle AgedABSTRACT
Negative symptoms are a core feature of schizophrenia and their reliable and valid assessment is a prerequisite for developing effective therapeutic interventions. This study examined the psychometric properties and validity of the Spanish version of a new rating instrument, the Clinical Assessment Interview for Negative Symptoms (CAINS). Outpatients and inpatients (N=100) with DSM-IV schizophrenia were administered the translated CAINS, the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS), and the Calgary Depression Scale for Schizophrenia (CDSS). A subsample (N=46) was rated for Parkinsonism using the Extrapyramidal Symptoms Rating Scale (ESRS). The scale showed good inter-rater and intra-rater reliability. Both the CAINS overall and the subscales for motivation/pleasure (CAINS-Map) and expression (CAINS-Exp) scores correlated significantly with the SANS and PANSS negative symptom scale. Significant correlations with positive symptoms and general psychopathology were also found, but these reduced and mostly became insignificant when overall severity of illness was controlled for. Significant correlations with depression also disappeared when severity was controlled for. There was a trend-level correlation between the CAINS total score and Parkinsonism, which reflected an association with the CAINS-Exp subscale only. Factor analysis revealed a two-dimensional structure that explained the 67.44% of the variance. Overall, the Spanish version of the CAINS appears to be a valid tool for measuring negative symptoms in schizophrenia.
