Linguistic compentence in positive and negative subtypes of schizophrenia.

Twenty patients of positive schizophrenia and 20 patients of negative schizophrenia, individually matched for age, sex, place of residence and education were studied to assess their linguistic competence and its relationship with psychopalhology and subsequent course of the disorder over a follow-up period of 6 months. It was observed that positive schizophrenics had significantly higher linguistic competence than negative schizophrenics. Linguistic competence was significantly related not only to the type of symptoms (positive or negative) but also to the severity of these symptoms. High linguistic competence was an indicator of poor prognosis in positive schizophrenia whereas in negative schizophrenia it was indicative of good prognosis.