The relationship between incoherent speech and different types of delusions and hallucinations in schizophrenics with positive symptoms

The most important speech disorder in schizophrenic patients with positive symptoms is incoherency, which has a wide spectrum depending on various factors. The present paper examines the relationship between incoherency of speech, delusions and hallucinations by investigating the discourse characteristics of the spontaneous speech of 18 Persian-speaking schizophrenics with positive symptoms. Based on the analysis of the data, two types of delusions: variable (VD) and invariable (ID), and two types of hallucinations: synchronic (SH) and diachronic (DH) were identified, and their relationships were discussed. The findings reveal that there is a strong correlation between the incoherency of speech and VD in these patients, and VD itself seems to result from SH. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of the 4th International Conference of Cognitive Science