Formal thought disorder, the type-token ratio and disturbed voluntary motor movement in schizophrenia.
Little work has been done to determine objective, reliable differences in formal characteristics of the actual utterances of thought-disordered and non-thought-disordered subjects. The type-token ratio (TTR), a quantitative measure of repetition in language, correlated highly with clinical judgments of thought disorder when spoken language was examined, and statistically differentiated thought-disordered from non-thought-disordered schizophrenics and psychiatric and normal controls. Elicited and spontaneous motor abnormalities were associated with reduced TTRs both in schizophrenics and in affective subjects with motor disturbance. The TTR is a reliable, objective indicator of language deviance and thought disorder, and strongly associated with motor disturbances.
D000328:Adult; D014150:Antipsychotic Agents / Q000009:adverse effects; D003071:Cognition; D006801:Humans; D008722:Methods; D008875:Middle Aged; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000187:drug effects; D012564:Schizophrenic Language; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D013850:Thinking
D014150:Antipsychotic Agents