title: Schizophrenia impairs phonological speech production: a preliminary report.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Schizophrenia causes clinically conspicuous impairment of syntax and semantics as part of the disorganisation syndrome; however, little is known regarding its effect on the phonological stage of speech, where word meanings are resolved into speech imagery.
  
  
  METHODS
  We used a "tongue-twister" task to probe phonological speech production and its clinical associations in six schizophrenia patients and 16 controls.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Errors induced by phonological similarity were more common in the patients (p=.003), were positively associated with psychomotor poverty symptoms (p=.02) and negatively associated with reality distortion symptoms (p=.03).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings suggest that phonological speech production is markedly disrupted by schizophrenia. Further, this phonological abnormality is distinct from disorganisation syndrome.
authors.affiliation: Academic Clinical Psychiatry, Department of Neuroscience, University of Sheffield, UK. p.b.birkett@sheffield.ac.uk
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Birkett
authors.forename: Judy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Clegg
authors.forename: Rajinder
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bhaker
authors.forename: Kwang-Hyuk
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Ashok
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mysore
authors.forename: Randolph
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Parks
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Woodruff
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010700:Phonetics; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D013060:Speech