Dysfunction of figurative language comprehension and verbal fluency in female schizophrenic patients

Abstract EN

Background: Language and communication abnormalities are regarded as cardinal symptoms of schizophrenia.

Research has indicated that patients with schizophrenia have difficulty in the interpretation of metaphors, ironies and proverbs and they demonstrated deficient verbal fluency performance across letter and category tasks.

The objective of the study is to probe figurative language comprehension and verbal fluency in female-only Arabic-speaking schizophrenic patients.

Method: In order to examine this issue, both figurative language comprehension and traditional semantic (animal, food) and phonological fluency tasks were completed by individuals with schizophrenia (N=50) and healthy controls (N=50).

In Figurative Interpretation Test, the subject has to choose the meaningful and abstract answer.

Fluency performance was measured as the total number of correct words generated in 60 seconds.

Results: Performance on figurative language comprehension and semantic and phonological fluency tasks was impaired in female schizophrenia patients compared to controls.

Conclusion: The results of the present study suggest that the language abnormalities in schizophrenia are universal and could serve as a nucleus for further future researches on a greater number of participants.