Word use in first-person accounts of schizophrenia

Language use is often disrupted in patients with schizophrenia; novel computational approaches may provide new insights.

To test word use patterns as markers of the perceptual, cognitive and social experiences characteristic of schizophrenia.

Word counting software was applied to first-person accounts of schizophrenia and mood disorder.

More third-person plural pronouns ('they') and fewer first-person singular pronouns ('I') were used in schizophrenia than mood disorder accounts. Schizophrenia accounts included fewer words related to the body and ingestion, and more related to religion. Perceptual and causal language were negatively correlated in schizophrenia accounts but positively correlated in mood disorder accounts.

Differences in pronouns suggest decreased self-focus or perhaps even an understanding of self as other in schizophrenia. Differences in how perceptual and causal words are correlated suggest that long-held delusions represent a decreased coupling of explanations with sensory experience over time.