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Formal Communication Disorder

Sign Language in Deaf People with Schizophrenia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Alice. J. Thacker
Alice. J. Thacker*
Affiliation:
Division of Adult Psychiatry, Department of Mental Health Sciences, St George's Hospital Medical School, Jenner Wing, Cranmer Terrace, London SW17 0RE
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Abstract

Background

This study investigates whether anomalies in the sign language of prelingually deaf schizophrenics can be elicited and described systematically.

Method

Thirty schizophrenic and seven manic adults were recruited on the basis of a British Sign Language (BSL) version of the Present State Examination. Thirty-seven controls were matched for sex, age and ethnicity. Each participant became deaf before the age of two, and uses BSL as the primary means of communication.

Results

Analysis reveals: (a) anomalies which are similar to those occurring in the spoken language of hearing schizophrenics; and (b) another series which is closely related to the life experience of deaf subjects and to the visuo-spatial medium itself.

Conclusions

There is evidence that formal communication disorder does occur in sign language. This has implications for more efficient diagnosis and management of deaf persons presenting to psychiatric services, as well as for the mechanisms of schizophrenic symptomatology itself.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 165 , Issue 6 , December 1994 , pp. 818 - 823
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1994 

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