Speech samples from 71 patients in four diagnostic groups were analyzed
by two quantitative methods of speech content analysis, the results of
which were entered into a discriminant analysis to test whether patients
could be accurately classified back into their appropriate diagnostic
groups. These classifications were compared with classifications made by
two psychiatrists, blind to the patients' diagnoses, who read transcripts
of the speech samples. The results suggest that data from the systematic
quantification of lexical choice can be used to classify patients into
their respective diagnostic groups and that this classification compares
favorably with that done by psychiatric raters.Abstract Teaser