Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Aug;56(8):1399-1410.
doi: 10.1007/s00127-021-02024-w. Epub 2021 Jan 17.

The cognitive aspect of formal thought disorder and its relationship with global social functioning and the quality of life in schizophrenia

Emre Mutlu  1   2 , Hatice Abaoğlu  3 , Elif Barışkın  4 , Ş Can Gürel  4 , Aygün Ertuğrul  4 , M Kazım Yazıcı  4 , Esra Akı  3 , A Elif Anıl Yağcıoğlu  4
Affiliations

The cognitive aspect of formal thought disorder and its relationship with global social functioning and the quality of life in schizophrenia

Emre Mutlu et al. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2021 Aug.

Abstract

Purpose: It was expected that using a comprehensive scale like the Thought and Language Disorder Scale (TALD) for measurement of FTD would enable assessing its heterogeneity and its associations with cognitive impairment and functionality. This study has aimed to analyze the relationship between formal thought disorder (FTD) and cognitive functions, functionality, and quality of life in schizophrenia.

Methods: This cross-sectional exploratory study included 46 clinical participants meeting the DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia and 35 healthy individuals as the control groups. Data were acquired by means of the Turkish language version of the TALD, the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale, the Clinical Global Impression Scale, the Functioning Assessment Short Test, the Social Functioning Scale, the World Health Organization Quality of Life Instrument-Short Form, and a neuropsychological test battery on executive functions, working memory, verbal fluency, abstract thinking, and response inhibition. Correlation analyses were conducted to detect significant relationships.

Results: The clinical group scored failures in all cognitive tests. The objective positive FTD was associated with deficits in executive functions and social functioning. The objective negative FTD was associated with poor performance in all cognitive domains, physical quality of life, and social and global functioning. The subjective negative FTD was negatively correlated with psychological quality of life.

Conclusion: This study demonstrated that objective FTD factors reflect different underlying cognitive deficits and correlate with different functioning domains. Significant correlation was determined between subjective negative FTD and psychological quality of life. Given the close relationship of FTD with functioning and quality of life, the FTD-related cognitive deficits should be the key treatment goal in schizophrenia.

Keywords: Cognitive functions; Formal thought disorder; Language processing; Psychosis; Social functioning.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Kircher T, Bröhl H, Meier F, Engelen J (2018) Formal thought disorders: from phenomenology to neurobiology. Lancet Psychiatry 5(6):515–526. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2215-0366(18)30059-2 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Andreasen NC (1986) Scale for the assessment of thought, language, and communication (TLC). Schizophr Bull 12(3):473 - DOI
    1. Andreasen NC, Grove WM (1986) Thought, language, and communication in schizophrenia: diagnosis and prognosis. Schizophr Bull 12(3):348 - DOI
    1. Andreasen NC (1982) Negative symptoms in schizophrenia. Definition and reliability. Arch Gen Psychiatry 39(7):784–788. https://doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.1982.04290070020005 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Kircher T, Krug A, Stratmann M, Ghazi S, Schales C, Frauenheim M, Turner L, Fahrmann P, Hornig T, Katzev M, Grosvald M, Muller-Isberner R, Nagels A (2014) A rating scale for the assessment of objective and subjective formal thought and language disorder (TALD). Schizophr Res 160(1–3):216–221. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2014.10.024 - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources