Language disorders as a syndrome in schizophrenia

Formal thought disorders, defined by DSM-IV as "disordered speech or utterances", also known as schizophasia (language disorder in schizophrenia), has been treated as a core feature of this psychosis since Kraepelin and Bleuler. On the other hand, factor analysis of the symptoms of schizophrenia (Liddle 1987) isolates a disorganization syndrome, of which language disorder is the major constituent. A meta-analysis of studies with factor analysis revealed that the majority of language phenomena in schizophrenia run in the way expected of the syndrome, although, as expected, this syndrome does not include "negative" language phenomena, i.e. poverty of content speech and poverty of speech, that are features of the "psychomotor poverty" syndrome of schizophrenia.