title: Formal thought disorder in schizophrenia: a factor analytic study.
abstract: The Thought, Language and Communication Scale (TLC) was studied in a sample composed of 115 DSM-III-R schizophrenic patients admitted to an acute inpatient unit. A principal component analysis with varimax rotation was performed to explore the possibility of the existence of syndromes within the formal thought disturbances. Seven factors were found to have eigen values greater than 1 and five showed appropriate internal consistency. The first factor, or disorganization factor, was close to the Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms (SAPS) formal thought disturbance subscale. The second, or negative factor (perseveration, poverty of speech and content), was moderately correlated with poor premorbid functioning and poor response to neuroleptic treatment. The third and fourth factors were, respectively, formed by stilted speech plus word approximations, and neologisms plus clanging. The fifth factor (distractibility and blocking), as well as the first two factors, were correlated to the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS) attention subscale.
authors.affiliation: Medical College of Pennsylvania, Eastern Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute, Philadelphia 19129.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Peralta
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Cuesta
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: de Leon
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology