Schizophrenic thought disorders: comparison between units of symptoms and axial syndrome.

The schizophrenic axial syndrome postulates the presence of thought disorder and/or cryptic neologisms. The theory of symptom units postulates three groups of symptoms within the schizophrenic pattern. Each group arises through a special basic disturbance within the performance of experience close to the biological substrate. 465 schizophrenics have been examined personally at least twice within 8 years. We investigated signs (A) of subjectively perturbed experience of thoughts, such as transitoriness, disconnection, pressing, movielike thinking, double-sense thinking: withdrawal, broadcasting, telepathy, insertion, audible thinking, postresonance, echo; lack of impressivenes, veiled thinking, hazy thinking, thoughts getting stuck; thoughts getting muddled and crossed, condensation, contamination; (B) of perturbed performance of thinking, such as loosening of association, thought gaps, derailment, substitution, blocking, desultory thinking, tangentiality, performed word contaminations, word approximation, dissolution of terms, private use of words, disturbed formulation of the meaning of facts, vague thinking, paraphrasia, neologism, driveling. The series of general frequency shows: driveling 67.9%, desultory thinking 57.3%, withdrawal, broadcasting, insertion 32.7%, loosening of association, gaps, derailment 28.9%, blocking 16.5%, transitoriness, movielike thinking, double-sense thinking 12.0%. From the practical point of view, the time of the first manifestation of the symptoms is important. This will de demonstrated. The study confirms the presence of thought disorders in each case but at different times within the course depending on the type of course (phases, attacks, attack processes, process). With regard to these results the theory of symptom units can assist the practicability of the schizophrenic axis syndrome.