Smerchinskaya, E.M.
Pavlov First State Medical University of St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg Bekhterev Psychoneurological Research Institute
Tregubenko, I.A.
Pavlov First State Medical University of St. Petersburg, Herzen State Pedagogical University
Isaeva, E.R.
Pavlov First State Medical University of St. Petersburg
Abstract
Background. The difficulties in diagnosing schizophrenia spectrum disorders are well known. It is believed that identifying structural markers of speech in patients with schizophrenia will improve the accuracy of diagnosis and differential diagnosis of the illness.
Objectives. The research goal is to study the structural characteristics of written speech in patients with schizophrenia and evaluate their diagnostic value in comparison with healthy participants and patients with other mental illnesses.
Study Participants. The research involved 169 people: 57 patients with schizophrenia, 53 patients with bipolar affective disorder, 33 patients with personality disorder, 26 healthy participants.
Methods. A content-analysis of written speech (description of the earliest memory) of patients and healthy participants was conducted. The description of the text was performed according to 19 structural characteristics of written speech by three experts. Diagnostically valuable characteristics of written speech were identified by discriminant analysis.
Results. Characteristics of written speech have been identified that allow distinguishing texts of patients with schizophrenia from texts of mentally healthy participants with an accuracy of 92%, and from texts of patients with other mental disorders — with an accuracy of 70%. Texts of patients with schizophrenia differ in a number of descriptions of internal experiences and thoughts, the number of verbs in the past and present tense, the frequency of words denoting social interaction or emotional state from texts of healthy participants. Texts of patients with mental illnesses differ in the number of pronouns “I” and its derivatives, the number of verbal forms, and the degree of syntactic complexity of speech.
Conclusions. Specific characteristics of written speech in patients with schizophrenia have been discovered. Their diagnostic
value has been determined. The prospects of their use for developing a method of early diagnostics, differential diagnostics of
schizophrenia, determining the prognosis and preventing exacerbations are discussed.
To cite this article:
Smerchinskaya, E.M. , Tregubenko, I.A. , Isaeva, E.R..
Diagnostic Value of the Structural Characteristics of Written Speech in Patients with Schizophrenia. // National Psychological Journal
2026. 1. Pages30-43. doi: 10.11621/npj.2026.0103
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