Automatic language analysis identifies and predicts schizophrenia in first-episode of psychosis.

Automated language analysis of speech has been shown to distinguish healthy control (HC) vs chronic schizophrenia (SZ) groups, yet the predictive power on first-episode psychosis patients (FEP) and the generalization to non-English speakers remain unclear. We performed a cross-sectional and longitudinal (18 months) automated language analysis in 133 Spanish-speaking subjects from three groups: healthy control or HC (n = 49), FEP (n = 40), and chronic SZ (n = 44). Interviews were manually transcribed, and the analysis included 30 language features (4 verbal fluency; 20 verbal productivity; 6 semantic coherence).