Lexical indicators of anxiety in schizophrenia

Abstract

ABSTRACT Background and Objectives Anxiety is a dominant emotion in schizophrenia. It is most often diagnosed by questionnaire-based methods. In this study, it was decided to analyse the utterances of patients with schizophrenia for the occurrence of lexical indicators of anxiety, which are a good predictor of experienced anxiety and lie beyond the subject’s control. Design The indicators most frequently described in the literature and considered to be of the most significant diagnostic value were selected: first-person pronouns and verbs; causal expressions and conjunctions; affirmative and negative particles; and dogmatic expressions. It was assumed that more of these would appear in the utterances of people with schizophrenia than in the utterances of healthy subjects. Methods The study was conducted on 130 patients with paranoid schizophrenia and 130 healthy subjects. They were asked to describe five pictures. Results In all verbal indicators of anxiety (except for negative particles) patients with positive schizophrenia attained the highest values, differing significantly from the results for the control groups. Conclusion This result is consistent with the subject literature, which emphasizes the high level of anxiety in schizophrenia, especially in its first phase, when the generative symptoms of the illness predominate.