Thinking Disorders: What They Are, Classification And Characteristics
Among the many mental illnesses that exist, those that affect thinking represent an important part of them.
We are going to try to condense some of the most important data to know what they are. the main thought disordershow they can be distinguished between them and other relevant information to learn more about these pathologies.
In order to talk about thought disorders, we must first have some very basic notions about psychopathology and its diagnostic classification.
All mental illnesses are included in manuals that are, mainly, the DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, from the American Psychiatric Association) and the ICD-10 (International Classification of Diseases, from the WHO). ). These manuals classify all known psychopathologies and are updated cyclically. to make the pertinent modifications according to the new research that has been carried out in that period. Therefore, in 2021, the DSM is in its fifth iteration, while the ICD is in its tenth iteration.
Once we are clear about where the classification of mental illnesses is, we can place thought disorders as one of the blocks of these diagnostic manuals. Other of the most important typologies that we can find are somatoform disorders, internalizing, externalizing or detachment disorders.
After this introduction, we can now focus on thought disorders to learn about the characteristics of this type of pathology, and later go on to learn about some of the clearest examples of these mental illnesses.
Classification and characteristics
Thought disorders are psychological alterations whose main symptom is an alteration in the subject’s cognitions. These alterations result in a dysfunction in communication, both at the level of thought and in language. Within this type of ailments, we must make a distinction, since thought can be altered both in its content and in its form.
When we talk about thought disorders, in general, we usually refer to those that have their shape altered. One of the most frequent pathologies in which we can observe clear signs of problems in the form of is schizophrenia.. FPD can also be referred to as disorganized thinking or disorganized speech, as it is one of the classic symptoms of these disorders.
Formal thought disorders are a sign of psychosis and as such must be taken into account as an indicator of serious pathology in the individual. In order to evaluate the extent of this disease, Nancy Andreasen developed two scales, the SAPS, to analyze the positive symptoms, and the SANS, to assess the negative ones.. We will return to these scales later to see them in depth.
2. Content Thought Disorders
We already mentioned that thought disorders can also refer to their content. This would also be a characteristic of schizophrenia, since has to do with delusions. It is also observed in pathologies such as Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. But TPC does not necessarily have to translate into delusions. It can also be observed as a level of pathological worry or obsession.
Another symptom of these thinking disorders is magical thinking., which consists of establishing arbitrary and illogical relationships about one’s own thoughts and the repercussions on the world. Without going to that extreme, ideas can also be overvalued, exaggerating our own mental processes and therefore causing them to lose realism.
Likewise, very significant signals for oneself can be seen in completely random events, which are known as reference ideas. Phobias towards certain stimuli and even self-harming ideas may also arise. As we can see, the symptomatology of content thinking disorders is very broad.
SANS Negative Symptom Scale
Returning to the SANS scale that we mentioned previously as an instrument to evaluate the negative symptoms of formal thought disorders, let’s see what type they can be.
1. Affective flattening
One of the first characteristics that we can observe in these subjects is affective dullness, that is, the lack of demonstration of emotions. This can be captured by the lack of facial gestures or expressions, a very limited realization of spontaneous movements, the lack of emotional resonance with the contents being discussed or the demonstration of an inappropriate affect with them.
Indications of this symptom can also be seen in eye contact itself, or rather in the lack of it.
2. Alogy
Formal thinking disorders can also result in difficulties in producing speech, or alogia. The vocabulary may be poorer than usual and so may the content. It can be observed that the subject takes longer than normal to answer the questions and that he freezes during speech.
3. Apathy
Symptoms of apathy can also be seen in these people. Hygiene care itself may be affected. Likewise, it can occur an abnormal decrease in performance in tasks and a clear demonstration of lack of physical energy in the subject.
4. Attention
The fourth factor that can be affected in formal thinking disorders is attention. The individual will have trouble concentrating on the test they are taking.
SAPS Positive Symptom Scale
The other scale developed by Andreasen is the SAPS. This allows us to see the positive symptoms of formal thought disorders., that is, those that are observed for their presence and not for their deficit, as was the case with the negative ones. They are the following.
1. Derailment
The derailment consists of performing a random association in speech, jumping from one theme to another that may or may not have a relationship with the previous one. This positive symptom can be observed in the subject’s speech but can sometimes also be reflected in writing.
2. Tangentiality
Tangential type speech is another symptom observable in formal thinking disorders. In this case, the affected person may be talking about a specific issue and, at a given moment, make an abrupt jump to another issue totally unrelated to the previous one and not give any further explanations about it.
3. Inconsistency
The so-called word salad, or incoherence, is another symptomatology in which the subject emits a completely rambling speech in which there is no common thread and therefore it is impossible to understand what they are trying to say. All the words they use exist, but the succession of words they make does not give rise to any coherent message..
Formal thinking disorders can also be observed in which a symptom is the loss of logic. When faced with a given question, the individual may try to respond in a way that is grammatically correct, but in reality is not answering the question that has been asked and therefore does not have a logic.
5. Excessive details
Excessive details or circumstantial speech could also denote the existence of a thought disorder. In this case, we would observe that the person focuses on giving an excessive amount of contextual detail rather than simply answering the central question about which you have been asked.
6. Pressure of speech
Speech pressure or pressured speech is another indicator that can be evaluated on the SAPS scale. In this case, said characteristic It is manifested by a rushed speech, without any pausewhich seems to demonstrate an urgency in the person to explain the idea they are exposing, although said urgency is not apparently observable to the interlocutor.
7. Distractions when speaking
Formal thinking disorders can also be detected by excessive distractions during speech. If a person is talking about a specific topic but any environmental stimulus makes him completely forget what he is saying to go on to talk about that other topic, we can think that we are dealing with this symptom.
8. Sound associations
The last characteristic of formal thought disorders that we can analyze using the SAPS has to do with the so-called sound associations, also called clanging. This phenomenon occurs when the subject begins to introduce words into their speech simply because of their sound proximity to those they were using, whether in the form of rhyme, or similar.
This means that the speech maintains a certain harmony in terms of sounds, but is nevertheless incoherent at the level of content, making it, therefore, unintelligible to the interlocutor.
