Am J Psychiatry 1988; 145:944-949
Copyright © 1988 by American Psychiatric Association
Patterns of thought disorder associated with right cortical damage, schizophrenia, and mania
EK Daniels, ME Shenton, PS Holzman, LI Benowitz, M Coleman, S Levin and D Levine
Mailman Research Center, McLean Hospital, Belmont, Mass.
The authors used the Thought Disorder Index to measure thought disorder in
23 patients with unilateral right hemisphere cortical damage, 20 patients
with bipolar mania, and 25 patients with schizophrenia. There were no
differences in the total amount of thought disorder in these groups, but
each showed a unique pattern of thought disorder. Patients with right
hemisphere damage displayed fragmented thinking, manic patients displayed
playful thinking, and schizophrenic patients displayed idiosyncratic
thinking. These findings support the view that thought disorder is
manifested in different forms that are relatively specific to psychiatric
or neurological condition.
