First-person Pronoun Use in Spoken Language as a Predictor of Future Depressive Symptoms: Preliminary Evidence from a Clinical Sample of Depressed Patients.

Abstract

Naturally occurring individual differences in first-person singular pronoun use provide an unobtrusive way to assess patients' automatic self-focused attention. Frequent use of first-person singular pronouns predicts an unfavourable course of depression. Self-focused language might offer innovative ways of tracking and targeting therapeutic change.