Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T18:16:30.547Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Non-verbal Behavioural Dysfunction in Schizophrenia

Vulnerability Indicator, Residual Marker or Coping Strategy?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 August 2018

Wolfgang Gaebel*
Affiliation:
Psychiatrische Klinik der Heinrich-Heine-Universität, Düsseldorf, Germany

Extract

Psychiatric disorders are psychopathologically characterised by signs and symptoms. Although diagnosis and classification rely heavily on the patient's report of subjectively experienced symptoms, the assessment of the underlying psychopathological process can be impaired by the patient's distorted self-image, his cognitive abnormalities, and his limited capacity to express himself verbally. Non-verbal behaviour, however, lends itself to objective and generalisable assessments: it can be reliably and accurately observed and measured, and although subject to cultural influence, it is the infant's most elementary form of self-expression (Gaebel, 1990). In addition, it plays a major role in interpersonal communication, which is disturbed in all psychiatric disorders. Therefore, the analysis of non-verbal behavioural dysfunction offers an important approach to the complex biopsychosocial framework of mental disorders.

Type
Risk factors
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alpert, M. & Friedhoff, A. J. (1980) An un-dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 6, 387390.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Alpert, M. & Rush, M. (1983) Comparison of affects in Parkinson's disease and schizophrenia. Psychopharmacology, 19, 118120.Google Scholar
American Psychiatric Association (1987) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd edn, revised) (DSM-III-R). Washington, DC: APA.Google Scholar
Andreasen, N. C. (1982) Negative symptoms in schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry, 39, 784788.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Andreasen, N. C., Alpert, M. & Marth, M. J. (1981) Acoustic analysis. Archives of General Psychiatry, 38, 281285.Google Scholar
Bellack, A. S., Morrison, R. L. & Mueser, K. T. (1989) Social problem solving in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 15, 101116.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bente, D. (1978) Methodische Gesichtspunkte zur Videoanalyse psychomotorischer Störungen. In Fernesehen in der Psychiatrie (eds H. Helmchen & E. Renfordt), pp. 4044. Stuttgart: Thieme.Google Scholar
Berner, P. (1988) Emotion, affect and mood: a terminological introduction. Psychopathology, 21, 6569.Google Scholar
Bleuler, E. (1920) Lehrbuch der Psychiatrie (3rd edn). Berlin: Springer.Google Scholar
Bleuler, E. (1966) Lehrbuch der Psychiatrie (10th edn: Revised by M. Bleuler). Berlin: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bouricius, J. K. (1989) Negative symptoms and emotions in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 15, 201208.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brenner, H. D. & Böker, W. (1986) Ausblick auf mögliche künftige Entwicklungen in Forschung und Praxis. In Bewaltigung der Schizophrenie (eds W. Böker & H. D. Brenner), pp. 226234. Bern: Huber.Google Scholar
Carlsson, A. (1987) Overview of dopamine mechanisms: neurochemical and pharmacological evidence. In Biological Perspectives of Schizophrenia (eds H. Helmchen & F. A. Henn), pp. 283297. New York: Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Carpenter, W. T., Heinrich, D. W. & Alphs, L. D. (1985) Treatment of negative symptoms. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 11, 440452.Google Scholar
Carpenter, W. T., Heinrich, D. W. & Wagman, A. M. I. (1988) Deficit and nondeficit forms of schizophrenia: the concept. American Journal of Psychiatry, 145, 578583.Google ScholarPubMed
Crow, T. J. (1985) The two-syndrome concept: origins and current status. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 11, 471485.Google Scholar
Csernansky, J. G., Holman, C. A. & Hollister, L. E. (1983) Variability and the dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 9, 325330.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Crow, T. J., Kaplan, J. & Hollister, L. E. (1985) Problems in classification of schizophrenics as neuroleptic responders and non-responders. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 173, 325331.Google Scholar
Davila, R., Manero, E., Zumarraga, M., et al (1988) Plasma homovanillic acid as a predictor of response to neuroleptics. Archives of General Psychiatry, 45, 564567.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ekman, P. & Friesen, W. V. (1978) Facial Action Coding System. Palo Alto: Consulting Psychologists Press.Google Scholar
Ekman, P. & Friesen, W. V. (1980) Nonverbal behaviour. In Ethology and Nonverbal Communcations in Mental Health (eds S. A. Corson, E. O. Corson & J. A. Alexander), pp. 221229. Oxford: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Fricchione, G., Sedler, M. J. & Shukla, S. (1986) Aprosodia in eight schizophrenic patients. American Journal of Psychiatry, 143, 14571459.Google Scholar
Frith, C. D. (1987) The positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia reflect impairments in the perception and initiation of action. Psychological Medicine, 17, 631648.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gaebel, W. (1989a) Indikatoren und Pradiktoren schizophrener Krankheitsstadien und Verlaufsgange. Habilitationsschrift, Freie Universität Berlin.Google Scholar
Gaebel, W. (1989b) Visuomotor behaviour in schizophrenia. Pharmacopsychiatry, 22 (suppl.), 2934.Google Scholar
Gaebel, W. (1990) Verhaltensanalytische Forschungsansätze in der Psychiatrie. Nervenarzt, 61, 527535.Google Scholar
Gaebel, W., Ulrich, G. & Frick, K. (1987) Visuomotor performance of schizophrenic patients and normal controls in a picture viewing task. Biological Psychiatry, 22, 12271237.Google Scholar
Gaebel, W., Stolz, J., Wölwer, W., et al (1989) Eye movements and face perception in schizophrenia. In Fifth European Conference on Eye Movements (eds Schmidt, R. & Zambarbieri, D.). Pavia: Proceedings University of Pavia.Google Scholar
Heimann, H. (1985) Specificity and nonspecificity – a major problem in biologically oriented psychopathology. Psychopathology, 18, 8287.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heimann, H. & Spoerri, T. H. (1957) Das Ausdruckssyndrom der mimischen Desintegrierung bei chronischen Schizophrenen. Schweizerische Medizinische Wochenschrift, 35/36, 2628.Google Scholar
Helmchen, H. & Renfordt, E. (1981) The contribution of audiovisual techniques to advances in psychopathology. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 22, 2130.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hemsley, D. R. (1987) An experimental psychological model for schizophrenia. In Search for the Causes of Schizophrenia (eds H. Häfner, W. F. Gattaz & W. Janzarik), pp. 179188. Berlin: Springer.Google Scholar
Hill, D. (1974) Non-verbal behaviour in mental illness. British Journal of Psychiatry, 124, 221230.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Holzman, P. S., Bivens, L. W., Bower, G. H. et al (1988) Basic behavioral sciences panel. In A National Plan for Schizophrenia Research. Report of the National Advisory Mental Health Council (eds S. J. Keith & S. M. Matthews), pp. 6881. Maryland: National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).Google Scholar
Kraepelin, E. (1896) Lehrbuch der Psychiatrie (5th edn.). Leipzig: Barth.Google Scholar
Krüger, H. P. (1989) Speech chronemics – a hidden dimension of speech. Theoretical background, measurements and clinical validity. Pharmacopsychiatry, 22 (suppl.), 512.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Le Doux, J. E. (1986) Sensory systems and emotion: A model of affective processing. Integrative Psychiatry, 4, 237248.Google Scholar
Leonhard, K. (1976) Der menschliche Ausdruck in Mimik, Gestik und Phonik. Leipzig: Barth.Google Scholar
Luborsky, L. & Blinder, B. (1965) Looking, recalling, and GSR as a function of defense. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 70, 270280.Google Scholar
Meltzer, H. Y. (1985) Dopamine and negative symptoms in schizophrenia: critique of the type I–II hypothesis. In Controversies in Schizophrenia (ed. Alpert, M.), pp. 110136. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Meya, U. & Renfordt, E. (1986) Can changes in eye-contact predict therapeutic outcome in schizophrenic patients undergoing neuroleptic treatment? Pharmacopsychiatry, 19, 429433.Google Scholar
Morrison, R. L., Bellack, A. S. & Mueser, K. T. (1988) Deficits in facial-affect recognition and schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 14, 6783.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
National Institute for Mental Health (1988) A national plan for schizophrenia research. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 14, 1123.Google Scholar
Nuechterlein, K. H. (1987) Vulnerability models for schizophrenia: state of the art. In Search for the Causes of Schizophrenia (eds H. Häfner, W. F. Gattaz & W. Janzarik), pp. 297316. New York: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pansa-Henderson, M., L'Horne, D. J. & Jones, I. H. (1982) Nonverbal behaviour as a supplement to psychiatric diagnosis in schizophrenia, depression, and anxiety neurosis. Journal of Psychiatric Treatment & Evaluation, 4, 489496.Google Scholar
Pitman, R. K., Kolb, B., Orr, S. P., et al (1987) Ethological study of facial behavior in nonparanoid and paranoid schizophrenic patients. American Journal of Psychiatry, 144, 99102.Google Scholar
Pogue-Geile, M. F. & Zubin, J. (1988) Negative symptomatology and schizophrenia: a conceptual and empirical review. International Journal of Mental Health, 16, 345.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ragin, A. B., Pogue-Geile, M. & Oltmanns, T. F. (1989) Poverty of speech in schizophrenia and depression during in-patient and post-hospital periods. British Journal of Psychiatry, 154, 5257.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rinn, W. E. (1984) The neuropsychology of facial expression: a review of the neurological and psychological mechanisms for producing facial expressions. Psychological Bulletin, 95, 5277.Google Scholar
Rutter, D. R. & Stephenson, G. M. (1972) Visual interaction in a group of schizophrenic and depressed patients. British Journal of Social & Clinical Psychology, 11, 5762.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scherer, K. R. & Ekman, P. (1982) Handbook of Methods in Nonverbal Behaviour Research, London: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Schneider, K. (1987) (13th edn) Klinische Psychopathologie. Stuttgart: Thieme.Google Scholar
Schooler, C. & Silverman, J. (1969) Perceptual styles and their correlates among schizophrenic patients. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 74, 459470.Google Scholar
Selbach, H. (1961) Über die vegetative Dynamik in der psychiatrischen Pharmakotherapie. Deutsches Medizin Journal, 16, 511517.Google Scholar
Selbach, H. (1962) The principle of relaxation oscillation as a special instance of the law of initial value in cybernetic functions. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 98, 12211228.Google Scholar
Spoerri, T. H. (1961) Der Ausdruck der gepressten Sprechstimme (“Würgstimme”) bei chronischen Schizophrenen. Confinia Psychiatrica, 4, 123132.Google Scholar
Spoerri, T. H. & Heimann, H. (1957) Ausdruckssyndrome Schizophrener. Nervenarzt, 28, 364366.Google Scholar
Steimer, E., Krause, R., Sanger-Alt, C., et al (1988) Mimisches Verhalten schizophrener Patienten und ihrer Gesprächspartner. Zeitschrift für Klinische Psychologie, 2, 132147.Google Scholar
Strauss, J. S. (1989a) Mediating processes in schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 155 (suppl. 5), 2228.Google Scholar
Strauss, J. S. (1989b) Subjective experiences of schizophrenia: toward a new dynamic Psychiatry – II. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 15, 179187.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strauss, J. S., Carpenter, W. T. & Bartko, J. J. (1974) The diagnosis and understanding of schizophrenia. Part III: Speculations on the processes that underlie schizophrenic symptoms and signs. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 11, 6169.Google Scholar
Tandon, R. & Greden, J. F. (1989) Cholinergic hyperactivity and negative schizophrenic symptoms. Archives of General Psychiatry, 46, 745753.Google Scholar
Tolkmitt, F., Helfrich, H., Standke, R. et al (1982) Vocal indicators of psychiatric treatment effects in depressives and schizophrenics. Journal of Communication Disorders, 15, 209222.Google Scholar
Walker, E. & Lewine, R. J. (1988) The positive/negative symptom distinction in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research, 1, 315328.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wallbott, H. G. (1989) Vocal behaviour and psychopathology. Pharmacopsychiatry, 22 (suppl.), 1316.Google Scholar
WHO/ADAMHA (1983) Diagnosis and classification of mental disorders and alcohol- and drug-related problems: a research agenda for the 1980s. Psychological Medicine, 13, 907921.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zubin, J. (1985) Negative symptoms: are they indigenous to schizophrenia? Schizophrenia Bulletin, 11, 461469.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zubin, J., Steinhauer, S. R., Day, R., et al (1985) Schizophrenia at the crossroads: a blueprint for the 80s. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 26, 217240.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.