Syntactic complexity of spoken language in the diagnosis of schizophrenia: A probabilistic Bayes network model.
Schizophrenia Research September 1, 2023 Angelica M Silva, Roberto Limongi, Michael Mackinley et al. 49 citations
Syntactic complexity, specifically the number of nominal subjects per clause in spoken language, declines in the six months following a first episode of psychosis among individuals who later receive a schizophrenia diagnosis. In a cohort of 26 first-episode psychosis patients and 12 healthy controls, automated analysis of speech samples from the Thought and Language Index interview showed that a 50% decrease in mean nominal subjects per clause after six months was explained by the presence of first-episode psychosis with 95.4% probability. Among those with psychosis, a 30% decrease predicted a schizophrenia diagnosis with 95% probability. This longitudinal decline distinguishes schizophrenia from other psychotic disorders.