Speech Patterns May Predict Psychosis

Spoken language patterns can predict with 93% accuracy if a person is at risk for psychosis and if the condition could progress to full psychosis within 2 years.

Psychosis can involve experiences that are not based in reality, often seen in psychotic mental disorders such as schizophrenia. A person may experience hallucinations or hear voices.

Looking at 40 people at risk of developing psychosis, researchers used sophisticated computer programs in a long term study to analyze patterns of speech. People were selected for the study because they showed non-typical patterns of thought and perception.

Those who progressed to psychosis demonstrated lower semantic density, which meant they had less meaning conveyed in their sentences compared to samples from a large database of so-called typical language patterns.

There are treatments to help, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy, which clinical studies and real-world evidence suggest can delay the onset of psychosis and reduce occurrence.