Summary: Bilingualism and Schizophrenia

[Ping Li]

Dear Colleagues,

Many thanks to the following colleagues who responded to my inquiry  
regarding research in schizophrenia and bilingualism:

Jose Centeno, Ann Dowker, Roberta Golinkoff, Loraine Obler, Tomasina Oh  
Sim.

Generally, it seems, this is not a very well examined topic. Perhaps  
there aren't too many schizophrenic bilingual patients?
(note that none of these articles seems to deal specifically with  
thought-disordered patients).

1:  De Zulueta FI, Gene-Cos N, Grachev S.
  Differential psychotic symptomatology in polyglot patients: Case
reports and their implications.
Br J Med Psychol. 2001 Sep;74 Part 3:277-292.

2:  Wang JH, Morales O, Hsu LK.
  Auditory hallucinations in bilingual immigrants.
J Nerv Ment Dis. 1998 Aug;186(8):501-3. PMID: 9717869

3:  de Zulueta FI.
  The implications of bilingualism in the study and treatment of
psychiatric disorders: a review.
Psychol Med. 1984 Aug;14(3):541-57.

4:  Grand S, Marcos LR, Freedman N, Barroso F.
  Relation of psychopathology and bilingualism to kinesic aspects of
interview behavior in schizophrenia.
J Abnorm Psychol. 1977 Oct;86(5):492-500.

5:  Alpert M.
  Evaluation of psychopathology in bilinguals.
Psychopharmacol Bull. 1975 Oct;11(4):60-1.

Two other sources might also contain discussions of schizophrenic  
bilinguals.

6. Fabbro, F. (1999). The neurolinguistics of bilingualism: An  
introduction. East Sussex, UK: Psychology Press
(I checked the book and there was a discussion of a  
hallucinative-paranoid schizophrenic patient who spoke Russian and  
Turkmenian).

7. Hyltenstam, K., & Stroud, C. (1989). Bilingualism in Alzheimer's  
dementia: Two case studies. In K. Hyltenstam & L. K. Obler,  
Bilingualism acorss the lifespan: Aspects of acquisition, maturity, and  
loss. Cambridge U. Press.


Happy Holidays.


Ping Li



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Ping Li, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Science
Graduate Program Coordinator
Department of Psychology
University of Richmond
Richmond, VA 23173, USA
Email: pli at richmond.edu
http://www.richmond.edu/~pli/
http://cogsci.richmond.edu/

Bilingualism: Language and Cognition:
http://cogsci.richmond.edu/bilingualism/bilingualism.html
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