[Biological and behavioral rhythms of patients with schizophrenia. Preliminary study]

Relying on the ethological model for the collection of data (ethogram), psycholinguistic methods (Cloze procedure, type token ratio) and chronobiological techniques, the present study tests the hypothesis of behavioural, speech and biological ultradian or circadian rhythms in certain types of schizophrenic patients after a 2 week study. Six daily, direct and meticulous 25 minutes observations of the behaviour and speech of four schizophrenics show that stereotyped motor or verbal behaviour does not always fluctuate at random; certain behavioural patterns recur regularly at fixed intervals, according to a set time structure. Most of the behavioural, verbal and biological variables have their acrophase at 10 a.m. and/or at 4 p.m. Instability in the rhythm of the sleep/wake cycle and the oral temperature observed in schizophrenics could be the result of desynchronization of the central pacemakers or of the resynchronization, or even of hypersynchronization with a delay of one phase. It is difficult to ascribe this desynchronization to the illness or the treatment.