Disembodied Language in Early-Onset Schizophrenia.
Przemysław Zakowicz, Maria Skibińska, Joanna Pawlak
Frontiers in psychiatry January 1, 2022 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.888844 via PubMed
Summary
Adolescents with early-onset schizophrenia spectrum disorders made more errors on a language task (Zabór Verbal Task) than healthy peers, and these errors did not improve after 6-8 weeks of standard treatment. A higher number of errors was associated with auditory hallucinations. The findings suggest that disrupted connection between thinking and environmental stimuli, or disembodied language, may contribute to psychosis symptoms.
Study at a glance
| Design | case-control study |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 62 |
| Population | adolescents aged 11-18 years with early-onset schizophrenia spectrum disorders and sex- and age-matched healthy controls |
| Key finding | Patients with psychosis made more errors on the Zabór Verbal Task than healthy controls, and these errors were associated with auditory hallucinations. |
Abstract
A recent view on schizophrenia phenomenology underlines the impaired relations between the mind and the body. An aberrant feeling of ipseity may be the real source of suffering of the patients from psychosis and impacts general symptomatology. The disturbed connection between thinking processes and environmental stimuli may lead to language disembodiment. In the study, we aimed to experimentally test the presence of disembodied language and investigate its association with symptoms of psychosis in adolescents diagnosed with early-onset schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Assessment of language embodiment was conducted using the Zabór Verbal Task (ZVT) with concurrent linguistic and clinical assessment using the Thought, Language, and Communication Scale (TLCS) and Positive and Negative Symptoms Scale (PANSS). The study group of patients (n = 31) aged 11-18 years, with the diagnosis of schizophrenia spectrum according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition (DSM-IV) and the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) criteria, was compared with a sex- and age-matched healthy control sample (n = 31). Patients with psychosis made more errors in ZVT than healthy controls (p = 0.01) and this parameter did not improve after 6-8 weeks of standard treatment (p = 0.55). A higher number of errors in ZVT were associated with the presence of auditory hallucinations (odds ratio [OR] 1.14; 95% CI 1.02-1.26). ZVT errors coincided with perception disorders, alternatively to the TLCS scores where we observed association with abnormal beliefs. The results of these preliminary studies indicate the value of the phenomenological approach in the diagnosis of schizophrenia spectrum and suggest a potential involvement of language disembodiment in symptomatology.