Assessment of language and communication impairments using the TLC scale in a control group versus a gender and age-matched group of patients with severe mental illness coming from a user’s association

Abstract

INTRODUCTION. Patients with severe mental illness (SMI) often show language and communication impairments. Their study requires an accurate assessment using specific tests and a comparison with a control group. AIM. To assess language and communication impairments by means of the Scale for the Assessment of Thought, Language, and Communication (TLC) in oral samples of a healthy control group (HC) matched for age and gender to a group of patients with severe mental illness (SMI). RESULTS. The HC sample consisted of 20 persons control group (40% females, mean age, 48.2). On the TLC scale, the regular total score was 16 [0-1] and the most prevalent symptoms were poverty of content of speech, poverty of speech, tangentiality, perseveration, digression, circumstantiality, and phonemic paraphasia. On the reading habits scale, the most scored scope was motivation. Significant differences were found in each of the TLC items, and in total scores in the control group compared with the gender and age-matched SMI group (p < .001). CONCLUSIONS. Findings suggest that: 1. The total score in the TLC scale was significantly lower in the control group compared with the SMI group. 2. Most of the HC participants exhibited adequate reading habits. 3. Speech therapists play a key role in the assessment and rehabilitation of the language and communication impairments of patients with SMI.