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Speed of Function, Thought-Process Disorder and Flattening of Affect

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Joan Draffan
Joan Draffan*
Affiliation:
University Department of Psychiatry (Royal Edinburgh Hospital), Edinburgh; and Cotuit Hall, Headington, Oxford
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Extract

Retardation, i.e. abnormal slowness in performing mental and/or motor tasks, is frequently noted as being a prominent feature of schizophrenia. While some writers describe it as being merely one of the several clinical signs and symptoms of schizophrenia, others suggest that retardation has a causative role, and is a basic disorder underlying antisociability and withdrawal from reality (Babcock, 1933), intellectual deficit (Shapiro and Nelson, 1955), affective flattening (Harris and Metcalfe, 1956), thought-process disorder (e.g. Yates, 1966), and other disorders.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 120 , Issue 555 , February 1972 , pp. 183 - 187
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1972 

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