Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T18:57:59.978Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Thought disorder in mid-childhood as a predictor of adulthood diagnostic outcome: findings from the New York High-Risk Project

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 August 2012

D. C. Gooding*
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
S. L. Ott
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
S. A. Roberts
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
L. Erlenmeyer-Kimling
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
*
*Address for correspondence: D. C. Gooding, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA. (Email: [email protected])

Abstract

Background

Thought disorder has been proposed as an indicator of schizotypy, which is considered to be necessary but not sufficient for the development of schizophrenia. It is unclear whether thought disorder is an indicator of susceptibility (i.e. an endophenotype) for schizophrenia. The goal of the present study was to elucidate the role of thought disorder in relation to schizotypy by examining its presence in high-risk individuals during mid-childhood.

Method

The sample consisted of 265 subjects drawn from the New York High-Risk Project. Individuals at high risk for schizophrenia (i.e. offspring of parents with schizophrenia) were compared with individuals at low risk for schizophrenia (i.e. offspring of parents with affective disorder or offspring of psychiatrically normal parents). Videotaped interviews were rated for thought disorder using the Scale for the Assessment of Thought, Language, and Communication (TLC). The same subjects were administered diagnostic interviews in late adolescence/early adulthood.

Results

Although positive thought disorder was equally present in subjects with affective and non-affective psychoses, negative thought disorder (namely, poverty of speech and poverty of content of speech) was elevated only in subjects with schizophrenia-related psychosis. Logistic regression analyses revealed that negative thought disorder added to the prediction of schizophrenia-related psychosis outcomes over and above positive thought disorder.

Conclusions

These findings suggest that negative thought disorder may have a specific association with schizotypy, rather than a more general association with psychosis. The findings also support consideration of negative thought disorder as an endophenotypic indicator of a schizophrenia diathesis.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Andreasen, NC (1979). Thought, language, and communication disorders: II. Diagnostic significance. Archives of General Psychiatry 36, 13251330.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Andreasen, NC (1986). Scale for the Assessment of Thought, Language, and Communication (TLC). Schizophrenia Bulletin 12, 473482.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Andreasen, NC, Grove, WM (1986). Thought, language, and communication in schizophrenia: diagnosis and prognosis. Schizophrenia Bulletin 12, 348359.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bashak, B, Ozel, ET, Atbasoglu, EC, Baskak, SC (2008). Peculiar word use as a possible trait marker in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research 103, 311317.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bearden, CE, Wu, KN, Caplan, R, Cannon, TD (2011). Thought disorder and communication deviance as predictors of outcome in youth at clinical high risk for psychosis. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 50, 669680.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Berenbaum, H, Oltmanns, TF, Gottesman, II (1985). Formal thought disorder in schizophrenics and their twins. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 94, 316.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bleuler, E (1911/1950). Dementia Praecox or The Group of Schizophrenias Schizophrenics. International Universities Press: New York.Google Scholar
Cannon, TD, Bearden, CE, Hollister, JM, Rosso, IM, Sanchez, LE, Hadley, T (2000). Childhood cognitive functioning in schizophrenia patients and their unaffected siblings: a prospective cohort study. Schizophrenia Bulletin 26, 379393.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cuesta, MJ, Peralta, V (2011). Testing the hypothesis that formal thought disorders are severe mood disorders. Schizophrenia Bulletin 37, 11361146.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Docherty, NM, Gordinier, SW (1999). Immediate memory, attention, and communication disturbances in schizophrenia patients and their relatives. Psychological Medicine 29, 189197.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Docherty, NM, Gottesman, II (2000). A twin study of communication disturbances in schizophrenia. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 188, 395401.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Endicott, J, Spitzer, RL (1978). A diagnostic interview: The Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry 35, 837844.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Erlenmeyer-Kimling, L (1987). Biological markers for the liability to schizophrenia. In Biological Perspectives of Schizophrenia (ed. Helmchen, H. and Henn, F. A.), pp. 3356. John Wiley & Sons: Chichester.Google Scholar
Erlenmeyer-Kimling, L, Adamo, UH, Rock, D, Roberts, SA, Bassett, AS, Squires-Wheeler, E, Cornblatt, BA, Endicott, J, Pape, S, Gottesman, II (1997). The New York High-Risk Project: prevalence and comorbidity of Axis I disorders in offspring of schizophrenic parents at 25-year follow-up. Archives of General Psychiatry 54, 10961102.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Erlenmeyer-Kimling, L, Rock, D, Roberts, SA, Janal, M, Kestenbaum, C, Cornblatt, B, Adamo, UH, Gottesman, II (2000). Attention, memory, and motor skills as childhood predictors of schizophrenia-related psychoses: The New York High-Risk Project. American Journal of Psychiatry 157, 14161422.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Erlenmeyer-Kimling, L, Squires-Wheeler, E, Adamo, UH, Bassett, AS, Cornblatt, BA, Kestenbaum, CJ, Rock, D, Roberts, SA, Gottesman, II (1995). The New York High-Risk Project: psychoses and cluster A personality disorders in offspring of schizophrenic parents at 23 years of follow-up. Archives of General Psychiatry 52, 857865.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gambini, O, Campana, A, Macciardi, F, Scarone, S (1997). A preliminary report of a strong genetic component for thought disorder in normals. A twin study. Neuropsychobiology 36, 1318.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gooding, DC, Coleman, MJ, Roberts, SA, Shenton, ME, Levy, DL, Erlenmeyer-Kimling, L (2012). Thought disorder in offspring of schizophrenic parents: findings from the New York High-Risk Project. Schizophrenia Bulletin 38, 263271.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gottesman, II, Gould, TD (2003). The endophenotype concept in psychiatry: etymology and strategic intentions. American Journal of Psychiatry 160, 636645.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hain, C, Maier, W, Hoechst-Janneck, S, Franke, P (1995). Subclinical thought disorder in first-degree relatives of schizophrenic patients. Results from a matched-pairs study with the Thought Disorder Index. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 92, 305309.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harvey, PD, Lenzenweger, MF, Keefe, RSE, Pogge, DL, Serper, MR, Mohs, RC (1992). Empirical assessment of the factorial structure of clinical symptoms in schizophrenic patients: formal thought disorder. Psychiatry Research 44, 141151.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harvey, PD, Weintraub, S, Neale, JM (1982). Speech competence of children vulnerable to psychopathology. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology 10, 373387.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Holzman, PS, Shenton, ME, Solovay, MR (1986). Quality of thought disorder in differential diagnosis. Schizophrenia Bulletin 12, 360372.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Johnston, MH, Holzman, PS (1979). Assessing Schizophrenic Thinking. Jossey-Bass Inc. Publishers: San Francisco.Google Scholar
Jones, PB, Done, DJ (1997). From birth to onset: a developmental perspective of schizophrenia in two national birth cohorts. In Neurodevelopment and Adult Psychopathology (ed. Keshavan, M. S. and Murray, R. M.), pp. 119136. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.Google Scholar
Kendler, KS, McGuire, M, Gruenberg, AM, Walsh, D (1995). Schizotypal symptoms and signs in the Roscommon family study: their factor structure and familial relationship with psychotic and affective disorders. Archives of General Psychiatry 52, 296303.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kendler, KS, Neale, M (2010). Endophenotype: a conceptual analysis. Molecular Psychiatry 15, 789797.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kraepelin, E (1896/1919). Dementia Praecox and Paraphrenia. Chicago Medical Book Company: Chicago.Google Scholar
Levy, DL, Coleman, MJ, Sung, H, Ji, F, Matthysse, S, Mendell, NR, Titone, D (2010). The genetic basis of thought disorder and language and communication disturbances in schizophrenia. Journal of Neurolinguistics 23, 176.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Loranger, AW, Susman, VL, Oldham, JM, Russakoff, LM (1987). The personality disorder examination: a preliminary report. Journal of Personality Disorders 1, 113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Makowski, D, Waternaux, C, Lajonchere, CM, Dicker, R, Smoke, N, Koplewicz, H, Min, D, Mendell, NR, Levy, DL (1997). Thought disorder in adolescent-onset schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research 23, 147165.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marengo, J, Harrow, M (1985). Thought disorder: a function of schizophrenia, mania, or psychosis?. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 173, 3541.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marengo, JT, Harrow, M (1987). Schizophrenic thought disorder at follow-up: a persistent or episodic course?. Archives of General Psychiatry 44, 651659.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Meehl, PE (1962). Schizotaxia, schizotypy, schizophrenia. American Psychologist 17, 827838.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meehl, PE (1989). Schizotaxia revisited. Archives of General Psychiatry 46, 935944.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ott, SL, Roberts, S, Rock, D, Allen, J, Erlenmeyer-Kimling, L (2002). Positive and negative thought disorder and psychopathology in childhood among subjects with adulthood schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research 58, 231239.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Parnas, J, Schulsinger, F, Schulsinger, H, Mednick, SA, Teasdale, TW (1982). Behavioral precursors of schizophrenia spectrum. Archives of General Psychiatry 39, 658664.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shenton, ME, Solovay, MR, Holzman, P (1987). Comparative studies of thought disorders: II. Schizoaffective disorder. Archives of General Psychiatry 44, 2130.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shenton, ME, Solovay, MR, Holzman, PS, Coleman, M, Gale, HJ (1989). Thought disorder in the relatives of psychotic patients. Archives of General Psychiatry 46, 897901.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Solovay, MR, Shenton, ME, Holzman, PS (1987). Comparative studies of thought disorders: I. Mania and schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry 44, 1320.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Spitzer, RL, Endicott, J, Robins, E (1978). Research Diagnostic Criteria: rationale and reliability. Archives of General Psychiatry 35, 773782.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Spohn, H, Coyne, L, Larson, J, Mittleman, F, Spray, J, Hayes, K (1986). Episodic and residual thought pathology in chronic schizophrenics: effects of neuroleptics. Schizophrenia Bulletin 12, 394407.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Squires-Wheeler, E, Skodol, AE, Hilldoff Adamo, U, Bassett, AS, Gewirtz, GR, Honer, WG, Cornblatt, BA, Roberts, SA, Erlenmeyer-Kimling, L (1993). Personality features and disorder in the subjects in the New York High-Risk Project. Journal of Psychiatric Research 27, 379393.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Winer, BJ, Brown, DR, Michels, KM (1991). Statistical Principles in Experimental Design. McGraw-Hill: New York.Google Scholar