Examining the Verbal Communications of People With Schizophrenia: How Well They Understand Others and Make Themselves Understood

Schizophrenia causes a broad, even befuddling spectrum of deficits:

Positive (abnormally present) symptoms such as hallucinations, delusions, disorganized thinking, communication and behavior

Negative (abnormally absent) symptoms like lack of motivation and drive, social withdrawal, flat affect, and reduced speech

Cognitive problems, such as difficulty with concentration, memory, and impaired executive function.

Many of them overlap, particularly when it comes to communication. Conversations and storytelling (aka “discourse production”) may be disrupted by, for example, jumping from one idea to another, meandering off-topic, providing excessive or irrelevant details before eventually getting to the point, and simply reduced speech.

All of these symptoms impact a person's ability to un