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Disembodied Language in Early-Onset Schizophrenia.

Przemysław Zakowicz, Maria Skibińska, Joanna Pawlak

Frontiers in Psychiatry 2022 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.888844 (opens in new tab)

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Study at a glance

AI-extracted from the abstract
Characteristics Observational cohort Peer reviewed
Sample size 62
Population Adolescents aged 11-18 years with early-onset schizophrenia spectrum disorders and sex- and age-matched healthy controls
Intervention standard treatment
Duration 6-8 weeks of standard treatment
Topics Philosophy of mind
Keywords Disembodiment Language Psychosis Schizophrenia
Citations 3
Key findings Patients with psychosis made more errors on the Zabór Verbal Task than healthy controls, and this deficit persisted after treatment, with errors associated with auditory hallucinations.

Abstract

A recent view on schizophrenia phenomenology underlines the impaired relations between the mind and the body. An aberrant feeling of ipseity may be the real source of suffering of the patients from psychosis and impacts general symptomatology. The disturbed connection between thinking processes and environmental stimuli may lead to language disembodiment. In the study, we aimed to experimentally test the presence of disembodied language and investigate its association with symptoms of psychosis in adolescents diagnosed with early-onset schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Assessment of language embodiment was conducted using the Zabór Verbal Task (ZVT) with concurrent linguistic and clinical assessment using the Thought, Language, and Communication Scale (TLCS) and Positive and Negative Symptoms Scale (PANSS). The study group of patients (n = 31) aged 11-18 years, with the diagnosis of schizophrenia spectrum according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition (DSM-IV) and the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) criteria, was compared with a sex- and age-matched healthy control sample (n = 31). Patients with psychosis made more errors in ZVT than healthy controls (p = 0.01) and this parameter did not improve after 6-8 weeks of standard treatment (p = 0.55). A higher number of errors in ZVT were associated with the presence of auditory hallucinations (odds ratio [OR] 1.14; 95% CI 1.02-1.26). ZVT errors coincided with perception disorders, alternatively to the TLCS scores where we observed association with abnormal beliefs. The results of these preliminary studies indicate the value of the phenomenological approach in the diagnosis of schizophrenia spectrum and suggest a potential involvement of language disembodiment in symptomatology.

Comparable studies

Other observational and cohort studies on philosophy of mind, most cited first.

Study Year Design Participants
The phenomenology of near-death experiences Subjects who reported near-death experiences 1980 Retrospective study n = 78
Visual Phenomenology of the LSD Flashback Persons with a history of LSD use 1983 Observational cohort n = 123
The neurophenomenology of neutral hypnosis. Individuals of high, medium, and low hypnotizability 2013 Observational cohort n = 37
The Phenomenology of Acute Organic Psychosis Patients with acute organic psychosis and acute schizophrenics 1987 Observational cohort n = 148
EEG oscillatory states as neuro-phenomenology of consciousness as revealed from patients in vegetative and minimally conscious states. Brain-damaged patients with disorders of consciousness and healthy-conscious subjects 2012 Observational cohort

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