Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T07:48:56.608Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Vocal Acoustic Correlates of Flat Affect in Schizophrenia

Similarity to Parkinson's Disease and Right Hemisphere Disease and Contrast with Depression

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 August 2018

M. Alpert
Affiliation:
Millhauser Laboratories of the Department of Psychiatry, NYU Medical Center, New York, USA
A. Rosen
Affiliation:
Millhauser Laboratories of the Department of Psychiatry, NYU Medical Center, New York, USA
J. Welkowitz
Affiliation:
Millhauser Laboratories of the Department of Psychiatry, NYU Medical Center, New York, USA
C. Sobin
Affiliation:
Millhauser Laboratories of the Department of Psychiatry, NYU Medical Center, New York, USA
J. C. Borod
Affiliation:
Queen's College of City University, New York, USA

Extract

In a survey of authoritative psychiatric texts, inconsistent, sometimes contradictory use can be found of the terms ‘affect’, ‘mood’, and ‘emotion’. There is some consensus that these terms deal with subsets of the larger domain of feelings, but many authorities, explicitly or implicitly, treat them as at least partially interchangeable. Others see the terms as referring to different phenomena, but disagree on how they differ. In lay usage, feelings are primarily subjective experiences, but the term is used here in a more encompassing, generic sense. In the psychiatric texts, some attributes are frequently used to distinguish among feelings. These include the duration of the phenomena; whether they are subjective, objective or both; the relative involvement of cognition; and whether they are clinically observable or rather reflect the patient's potential for response. Some examples of current usage will be considered before alternative formulations are suggested.

Type
II. Biological Aspects
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

Abrams, R. & Taylor, M. A. (1979) A rating scale for emotional blunting. American Journal of Psychiatry, 135, 226229.Google Scholar
Alpert, M. (1981) Speech and disturbances of affect. In Speech Evaluation in Psychiatry (ed. Darby, J. K.). New York: Grune and Stratton.Google Scholar
Alpert, M. (1982) Encoding of feelings in voice. In Treatment of Depression: Old Controversies and New Approaches, (ed. Clayton, P. J. & Barrett, J.). New York: Raven Press.Google Scholar
Alpert, M. (1985) The signs and symptoms of schizophrenia. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 25, 103112.Google Scholar
Alpert, M. & Anderson, L. T. (1977) Imagery mediation of vocal emphasis in flat affect. Archives of General Psychiatry, 34, 208212.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Alpert, M. & Rush, M. (1983) Comparison of affects in Parkinson's disease and schizophrenia. Psychopharmacology Bulletin, 19, 118120.Google Scholar
Alpert, M., Kurtzberg, R. & Friedhoff, A. J. (1963) Transient voice changes associated with emotional stimuli. Archives of General Psychiatry, 8, 362365.Google Scholar
American Psychiatric Association (1980) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd edn) (DSM-III). Washington: APA.Google Scholar
Andreasen, N. C. (1979) Affective flattening and the criteria for schizophrenia. American Journal of Psychiatry, 136, 944947.Google Scholar
Andreasen, N. C., Alpert, M. & Martz, M. J. (1981) Acoustic analysis: an objective measure of affective flattening. Archives of General Psychiatry, 38, 281285.Google Scholar
Bleuler, E. (1950) Dementia Praecox or the Group of Schizophrenias (Zinkin, J. trans.). New York: International Universities Press.Google Scholar
Borod, J., Alpert, M., Brozgold, A., et al. (1986) Assessment of affective disturbances in neurological and psychiatric disorders. Paper presented at the International Neuropsychological Society, Denver, February 8.Google Scholar
Breuer, J. & Freud, S. (1957) Studies in Hysteria. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Carpenter, W. I., Henrichs, D. W. & Wagman, A. M. I. (1985) On the heterogeneity of schizophrenia. In Controversies in Schizophrenia Changes and Constancies (ed. Alpert, M.). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Cherry, C. (1966) On Human Communication (2nd edn). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Massachusetts Institute of Technology.Google Scholar
Craig, T. J., Richardson, M. A., Pass, R., et al. (1985) Measurement of mood and affect in schizophrenic inpatients. American Journal of Psychiatry, 142, 12721277.Google Scholar
Crow, T. J. (1980) Molecular pathology of schizophrenia: more than one disease process? British Medical Journal, 280, 6668.Google Scholar
Cutting, J. (1981) Judgement of emotional expression in schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 139, 16.Google Scholar
Ekman, P. (1982) Emotion in the Human Face. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Endicott, J. & Spitzer, R. I. (1978) A diagnostic interview - the schedule for affective disorders and schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry, 35, 837844.Google Scholar
Fish, F. (1967) Clinical Psychopathology: Signs and Symptoms in Psychiatry. Bristol: John Wright & Sons.Google Scholar
Gove, P. B. (ed.) (1955) Websters Third New International Dictionary. Springfield, Merriam-Webster.Google Scholar
Greden, J. F. & Carroll, B. J. (1981) Psychomotor function in affective disorders: an overview of new monitoring techniques. American Journal of Psychiatry, 138, 14411448.Google Scholar
Green, M. & Walker, E. (1985) Neuropsychological performance and positive and negative symptoms in schizophrenia. Journal of American Psychology, 94, 460469.Google Scholar
Hinsie, L. E. & Campbell, R. J. (1960) Psychiatric Dictionary. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hofling, C. K. (1975) Textbook of Psychiatry for Medical Practice (3rd edn.). Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co.Google Scholar
Hollingshead, A. B. & Redlich, F. C. (1958) Social Class and Mental Illness. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Lager, C. A., Kirch, D. G. & Wyatt, R. J. (1984) A negative symptom rating scale. Psychiatry Research, 16, 2736.Google Scholar
Izard, C. (1977) Human Emotions. New York: Plenum Press.Google Scholar
Kaplan, H. I. & Saddock, B. J. (1985) Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry (4th edn). Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins.Google Scholar
Knight, R. A., Roff, J. D., Barnett, J., et al. (1979) Concurrent and predictive validity of thought disorder and affectivity: a 22-year follow-up of acute schizophrenics. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 88, 112.Google Scholar
Kolb, L. (1977) Modern Clinical Psychiatry (9th edn.). Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders & Co.Google Scholar
Kraeplin, E. (1919) Dementia Praecox and Paraphrenia, (8th edn.) (Barclay, R. M. trans). Edinburgh: E. S. Livingstone.Google Scholar
Leff, J. & Abberton, E. (1981) Voice pitch measurements in schizophrenia and depression. Psychological Medicine, 11, 849852.Google Scholar
Levin, S., Hall, J. A., Knight, R. A., et al. (1985) Verbal and nonverbal expression of affect in speech of schizophrenic and depressed patients. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 94, 487497.Google Scholar
Lewine, R. J. & Sommers, A. A. (1985) Clinical definition of negative symptoms as a reflection of theory and methodology. In Controversies in Schizophrenia Changes and Constancies (ed. Alpert, M.). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Lewine, R. R., Fogg, L. & Meltzer, H. (1983) The development of scales for the assessment of positive and negative symptoms in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 9, 368376.Google Scholar
Martz, J. & Welkowitz, J. (1977) Weimar - computer programs to analyze diagolic time patterns. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 45, 531537.Google Scholar
Mayer, M., Alpert, M., Stastny, P., et al. (1985) Multiple contributions to clinical presentation of flat affect in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 11, 420426.Google Scholar
Mayer-Gross, W., Slater, E. & Roth, M. (1960) Clinical Psychiatry (3rd edn.). Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins.Google Scholar
McGlashan, T. H. (1986) Predictors of shorter-, medium- and longer-term outcome in schizophrenia. American Journal of Psychiatry, 143: 5055.Google Scholar
McGlashan, T. H. & Carpenter, W. T. (1976) Postpsychotic depression schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry, 33, 231239.Google Scholar
Meltzer, H. Y. (1985) Dopamine and negative symptoms in schizophrenia: critique of the type I-II hypothesis. In Controversies in Schizophrenia Changes and Constancies (ed. Alpert, M.). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Overall, J. E. & Gorham, D. R. (1962) The brief psychiatric rating scale. Psychological Reports, 10, 799812.Google Scholar
Pearson, M. M. (1963) Fundamentals of Psychiatry (6th edn.). Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co.Google Scholar
Pogue-Geile, M. F. & Harrow, M. (1984) Negative and positive symptoms in schizophrenia and depression: a follow-up. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 10, 371387.Google Scholar
Reid, W. H., Moore, S. L. & Zimmer, M. (1982) Assessment of affect in schizophrenia. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 70, 266269.Google Scholar
Ross, E. D. (1981) The aprosodias: functional-anatomic organization of the affective components of language in the right hemisphere. Archives of Neurology, 38, 561569.Google Scholar
Slaby, A., Tancredi, L. & Lieb, J. (1981) Clinical Psychiatric Medicine. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Spitzer, R. & Endicott, J. (1975) Research Diagnostic Criteria. New York: New York State Psychiatric Institute.Google Scholar
Strauss, J. S. & Carpenter, W. T. (1977) Prediction of outcome in schizophrenia: III five-year outcome and its predictors. Archives of General Psychiatry, 34, 159163.Google Scholar
Taylor, M. A., Greenspan, G. & Abrams, R. (1979) Lateralized neuropsychological dysfunction in affective disorder and schizophrenia. American Journal of Psychiatry, 136, 10311034.Google Scholar
Tucker, D. M., Watson, R. T. & Heilman, K. M. (1977) Discrimination and evocation of affectively intoned speech in patients with right parietal disease. Neurology, 27, 947950.Google Scholar
Wing, J. K. (1962) Institutionalism in mental hospitals. British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 1, 3851.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.