Difficulties in diagnostics of mild depressions are related to clinical interpretation of thought structure and content within depressive triad. Whereas nonverbal (motor) and affective components are similar to variations of normal sadness in healthy individuals, associative component reveals the most sensitive psychopathological finding being represented in definite language changes.

124 patients and 77 healthy controls, including 35 with normal sadness reactions, were observed. Speech (superficial, deep levels, Russian language) was studied using standardized psycholinguistic procedures. Statistical data evaluation included descriptive methodics, nonparametric analysis, mathematic modeling (discriminate analysis).

Three clinical groups were formed upon to psychopathological subtypes (anxious, asthenic-hypodynamic, melancholic mild depressions). Leading hypotymic affect correlated with content of affective component, semantics of associative component, pronounced component of depressive triad and direction of the prevailing time representation.

Lexical-stylistic sublevel of speech demonstrated verbosity, narration dominated over reasoning, signs of oral speech, increased number of phraseologisms, tautologies, lexical and semantic repetitions, metaphors, comparisons, inversions, ellipsis. Lexical-grammer sublevel contained more pronouns of all types with the prevalence of personal pronouns, imperfective verbs in preferential past tense. Syntax-stylistic sublevel represented the prevalence of simple sentences (truncated, impersonal), inversive word order. Component analysis of speech demonstrated the qualitative distortion and reduction of semantic component.

Disruptions in structure and semantics of speech related to the most clinically pronounced thought disorder were presented in melancholic depression. Superficial level of speech was damaged mostly in asthenic-hypodynamic depression. Speech was similar to healthy controls and demonstrated the highest among subgroups cognitive adaptability level in anxious subtype.