Lexico-semantic content in two psychiatric symptom descriptions: a comparative analysis between an individual with a first episode of psychosis and an individual with chronic schizophrenia

Abstract

This work seeks to compare the lexico-semantic content present in the description of the symptoms of two different individuals, one diagnosed with a first episode of psychosis and another one with chronic schizophrenia. The results showed lexico-semantic differences between both individuals in the relative frequency of certain words and in the allolexy of the first person singular in combination with several semantic roles. In the case of the individual with a first episode of psychosis, symptomatology showed the importance of their mental and corporal sensations, codifying the experiencer either as a grammatical subject or object. In contrast, the symptoms of the individual diagnosed with chronic schizophrenia made reference to an evil spirit and the co-occurrence of the first person singular with several semantic roles was more varied. These results highlight the importance of the lexico-semantic content in the symptomatologic description for the diagnosis of distinct psychotic disorders.