Using speech samples of 100 patients suffering from schizophrenia, bipolar
illness and major depression, we addressed the question of the extent to which
the linguistic abnormalities in the speech of these patients represent
diagnosis-specific characteristics, or constitute independent, syndrome-like
dimensions of the illnesses. All speech samples were transcribed by a professional
linguist who was blind to both identity and diagnosis of the patients. The
majority of the deviant linguistic variables was found to be common to all
three diagnostic groups under comparison, while only a few linguistic variables
exhibited statistically significant between-group differences.
On the other hand, the variety of subtle between-group differences allowed us,
when the respective variables were analysed as a multivariate entity, to
discriminate between the diagnostic groups at an overall performance of 72.7%
correctly classified patients. There was an almost complete lack of association
between linguistic abnormalities and psychopathology syndromes. In particular, we
found no correlation between the syndrome "formal thought disorder" and the large
variety of linguistic variables used in this investigation. In consequence,
we conjecture that linguistically deviant speech characteristics represent
an independent syndrome complex manifested at varying intensities across
mental illnesses, and that this syndrome complex deserves greater attention
not only with respect to the principal understanding of the underlying
disturbances, but also as a potential target of therapeutical intervention.
Braun S, Annovazzi C, Botella C, Bridler B, Camussi E, Delfino JP, Mohr C, Moragrega I, Papagno C,
Pisoni A, Soler C, Seifritz E, Stassen HH: Assessing Chronic Stress, Coping Skills and Mood Disorders
through Speech Analysis. A Self-Assessment "Voice App" for Laptops, Tablets, and Smartphones.
Psychopathology 2016; 49(6): 406-419
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Delfino JP, Barragán E, Botella C, Braun S, Bridler R, Camussi E, Chafrat V, Lott P, Mohr C,
Moragrega I, Papagno C, Sanchez S, Seifritz E, Soler C, Stassen HH: Quantifying Insufficient
Coping Behavior under Chronic Stress. A cross-cultural study of 1,303 students from Italy,
Spain, and Argentina. Psychopathology 2015; 48: 230-239
Braun S, Botella C, Bridler R, Chmetz F, Delfino JP, Herzig D, Kluckner VJ, Mohr C, Moragrega I, Schrag Y,
Seifritz E, Soler C, Stassen HH: Affective State and Voice: Cross-Cultural Assessment of Speaking Behavior and
Voice Sound Characteristics. A Normative Multi-Center Study of 577+36 Healthy Subjects. Psychopathology 2014;
47(5): 327-340
Mohr C, Braun S, Bridler R, Chmetz F, Delfino JP, Kluckner VJ, Lott P, Schrag Y, Seifritz E, Stassen HH:
Insufficient Coping Behavior under Chronic Stress and Vulnerability to Psychiatric Disorders.
Psychopathology 2014; 47: 235-243
Stassen HH, Delfino JP, Kluckner VJ, Lott P, Mohr C: Vulnerabilität und psychische Erkrankung. Swiss Archives
of Neurology and Psychiatry 2014; 165(5): 152-157
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