Schizophrenia impairs phonological speech production: a preliminary report.
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.
Birkett
Paul
P
Academic Clinical Psychiatry, Department of Neuroscience, University of Sheffield, UK. p.b.birkett@sheffield.ac.uk
Clegg
Judy
J
Bhaker
Rajinder
R
Lee
Kwang-Hyuk
KH
Mysore
Ashok
A
Parks
Randolph
R
Woodruff
Peter
P
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