Evaluation of speech and language in neuropsychiatric disorders.

Changes of language and speech in neuropsychiatric patients are described by use of a quantifying procedure. In the transcript of a standardized interview the following variables are evaluated (by estimation of indices): rate of speech, pauses, indistinct and incomprehensible articulations, aphasic disturbances, subordinate: principal clause ratio, stuttering, neologisms, grammatical mistakes, thought disconnections, perseverations/verbigerations, vague utterances, disturbances of orientation, utterances with unusual though content, euphoric utterances, dysphoric utterances, and change of the affective state. Reliability of these indices is tested by inter-rater comparison. The course of speech-language reorganization during therapy is followed. The present method does not intend to give a detailed psycholinguistic analysis, but it yields an objective measure of clinical impressions on abnormalities of language and speech in neuropsychiatric disorders.