Fluency Impairment in Chronic Schizophrenia

Abstract

Fluency impairment is a core feature of chronic schizophrenia (CSZ). The present study focused on the investigation of fluency impairment among Nigerian patients diagnosed with chronic schizophrenia. The assessment tools utilized were fluency tasks, mini-mental status examination (MMSE), trail making test (TMT) parts A and B. The executive function domain of fluency expressed in three categories as semantic verbal fluency, phonemic verbal fluency and design fluency were examined. A total of ninety-seven participants consisting of patients diagnosed with schizophrenia (n=53, 29 females and 24 males); and a control group of 44 persons (21 females and 23 males) took part in the study. There were significant mean differences between schizophrenics and controls on all the parameters employed. Utilizing regression analysis, the most significant predictors of fluency parameters (semantic fluency, phonemic fluency and design fluency) among CSZ cases were with general cognitive functioning (t= 5.45, P1lt; 0.001), (t= 4.71, P1lt;0.001), (t=3.36, P=0.001) and TMT B, design fluency: (t=2.30, P=0.025), semantic fluency: (t=2.79, P=.007), phonemic fluency: (t=6.54, P1lt;0.001). The findings show that chronic schizophrenics are at higher risk of developing fluency dysfunction than the general population.