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Semantic fluency in schizophrenia
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 April 2020
Abstract
Patients with schizophrenia exhibit various cognitive dysfunctions, most of them rendered evident by language.
The aims of the current study are: to compare the global semantic performance of schizophrenics with those of normal controls and to explore the schizophrenics' semantic network.
62 schizophrenic patients, admitted to the Second Psychiatric Clinic Cluj, diagnosed according to ICD-10 criteria and 158 healthy controls were evaluated with tasks for semantic fluency (animals, fruits and body parts).
The correlation between clinical symptoms, demographic data and the verbal fluency variables has been determined using Pearson's correlations. The data were analysed using ANOVA and for semantic fluency this was followed by multidimensional scaling (MDS).
Patients with schizophrenia generated fewer words than healthy controls on semantic fluency tasks. The MDS analysis showed that the semantic structure for schizophrenics with hallucinations was more disorganized than that for the schizophrenics without hallucinations. The schizophrenics with hallucinations appeared to lack any organisation or logical associations within their semantic network of animals, fruits or body parts.
The comparison between schizophrenia patients as a whole and normal controls indicated impaired semantic structure in the patient group, in addition to decreased word production.
- Type
- Poster Session 1: Schizophrenia and Other Psychosis
- Information
- European Psychiatry , Volume 22 , Issue S1: 15th AEP Congress - Abstract book - 15th AEP Congress , March 2007 , pp. S133
- Copyright
- Copyright © European Psychiatric Association 2007
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