Pragmatic features in patients with schizophrenia

ABSTRACT

Schizophrenia is a heterogeneous disorder. Despite the fact that communication and language skills may be impaired in schizophrenia, only a few studies have examined specific aspects of pragmatic competence in these patients. Therefore, this study aimed to compare the pragmatic skills of schizophrenic patients and a control group. Forty-three schizophrenic patients with a Mean ± SD age of 40 ± 1.21 years old and a control group were assessed using the Adult Pragmatics Profile (APP), which is a validated tool consisting of three scales: verbal, nonverbal and paralinguistic. The participants in the schizophrenia group demonstrated significant impairments in pragmatic abilities compared to the participants in those the control group. The most remarkable difference was in the nonverbal scale (5.00 ± 1.09), while the lowest difference was seen in the verbal scale (18.30 ± 3.91). Within the nonverbal subscales, eye contact was the most impaired. Schizophrenic patients presented with impairments in their pragmatic skills (verbal, nonverbal and paralinguistic). As pragmatic skills play a paramount role in social communication, it is of great significance to address these impairments to enhance patients’ quality of life.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Pragmatic deficits are a core feature in schizophrenic patients.

• Schizophrenic patients had the lowest scores on the nonverbal scale, and they showed the lowest impairment on the verbal scale.

• Schizophrenic patients scored the lowest on the turn-taking subscale of the verbal scale, the eye contact of the non-verbal scale and the vocal intensity subscale of the paralinguistic scale of the APP.

KEYWORDS:

• Schizophrenia
• pragmatic
• communication
• nonverbal
• verbal
• paralinguistic

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the participants and their families for their participation in this study.

Authorship contribution statement

All authors contributed in designing, running, and writing all parts of the research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The study was financially supported by Mashhad University of Medical Sciences [NO. 950325], Mashhad, Iran.