Phoricity as a measure of Clozaril's efficacy in treating disorganized schizophrenia.
The current study investigated the use of cohesive links analysis as a measure of Clozaril's efficacy in treating disorganized schizophrenia. Two adolescent patients with disorganized schizophrenia, and a comparison group of adolescents with no reported history of psychiatric disturbances, were engaged in the study. All participants were engaged by an examiner in 20-minute conversations that touched on various topics. The conversations were audiotaped, transcribed, and coded blindly for several types of cohesive links. Certain changes in the conversational ability of individuals with schizophrenia were observed following the introduction of Clozaril. For example, the use of anaphoric references became more similar to that of the comparison group. No change was observed, however,in the use of unclear references. Cohesion variables were found to be sensitive to changes in the patients' psychiatric state. The results support further investigation of stimulant effects on discourse in adolescents with disorganized schizophrenia
Abu-Akel
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Department of Applied Linguistics, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA.