A Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis of Schizophrenia Language

TL;DR

This paper analyzes language features in speech and writing of schizophrenia patients, revealing significant differences in emotional expression, belief commitment, and linguistic cohesion compared to healthy controls.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive linguistic analysis of schizophrenia patients' speech and text, highlighting specific language markers associated with the condition.

Findings

Patients score higher in fear and neuroticism.

They show increased belief commitment.

Their language exhibits reduced cohesion.

Abstract

Schizophrenia is one of the most disabling mental health conditions to live with. Approximately one percent of the population has schizophrenia which makes it fairly common, and it affects many people and their families. Patients with schizophrenia suffer different symptoms: formal thought disorder (FTD), delusions, and emotional flatness. In this paper, we quantitatively and qualitatively analyze the language of patients with schizophrenia measuring various linguistic features in two modalities: speech and written text. We examine the following features: coherence and cohesion of thoughts, emotions, specificity, level of committed belief (LCB), and personality traits. Our results show that patients with schizophrenia score high in fear and neuroticism compared to healthy controls. In addition, they are more committed to their beliefs, and their writing lacks details. They score lower in most of the linguistic features of cohesion with significant p-values.