Tangential speech or tangentiality is a

communication disorder A communication disorder is any disorder that affects an individual's ability to comprehend, detect, or apply language and speech to engage in dialogue effectively with others. The delays and disorders can range from simple sound substitution to t ...

in which the train of thought of the speaker wanders and shows a lack of focus, never returning to the initial topic of the conversation.''Forensic Aspects of Communication Sciences and Disorders'' by Dennis C. Tanner 2003 page 289 It tends to occur in situations where a person is experiencing high anxiety, as a manifestation of the psychosis known as ''

schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social withdra ...

'', in

dementia Dementia is a disorder which manifests as a set of related symptoms, which usually surfaces when the brain is damaged by injury or disease. The symptoms involve progressive impairments in memory, thinking, and behavior, which negatively affe ...

or in states of

delirium Delirium (also known as acute confusional state) is an organically caused decline from a previous baseline of mental function that develops over a short period of time, typically hours to days. Delirium is a syndrome encompassing disturbances in ...

. It is less severe than logorrhea and may be associated with the middle stage in

. It is, however, more severe than

circumstantial speech Circumstantial speech, also referred to as circumstantiality, is the result of a so-called "non-linear thought pattern" and occurs when the focus of a conversation drifts, but often comes back to the point.''Problem-Based Psychiatry'' by Ben Green 2 ...

in which the speaker wanders, but eventually returns to the topic. Some adults with

right hemisphere brain damage Right hemisphere brain damage (RHD) is the result of injury to the right cerebral hemisphere.American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (2015). ''Right hemisphere brain damage''. Retrieved from http://www.asha.org/public/speech/disorders/RightBr ...

may exhibit behavior that includes tangential speech. Those who exhibit these behaviors may also have related symptoms such as seemingly inappropriate or self-centered social responses, and a deterioration in pragmatic abilities (including appropriate eye contact as well as topic maintenance).''Perspectives on Treatment for Communication Deficits Associated With Right Hemisphere Brain Damage'' by Margaret Lehman Blake 2007 page 333

Definition

The term refers simplistically to a

thought disorder A thought disorder (TD) is any disturbance in cognition that adversely affects language and thought content, and thereby communication. A variety of thought disorders were said to be characteristic of people with schizophrenia. A content-thought ...

shown from speech with a lack of observance to the main subject of discourse, such that a person whilst speaking on a topic deviates from the topic. Further definition is of speech that deviates from an answer to a question that is relevant in the first instance but deviates from the relevancy to related subjects not involved in a direct answering of the question.P. J. McKenna, Tomasina M. Oh Tali Ditman & Gina R. Kuperberg In the context of a conversation or discussion the communication is a response that is ineffective in that the form is inappropriate for adequate understanding. The person's speech seems to indicate that their attention to their own speech has perhaps in some way been overcome during the occurrence of cognition whilst speaking, causing the vocalized content to follow thought that is apparently without reference to the original idea or question; or the person's speech is considered evasive in that the person has decided to provide an answer to a question that is an avoidance of a direct answer.

History

The earlier

phenomenological Phenomenology may refer to: Art * Phenomenology (architecture), based on the experience of building materials and their sensory properties Philosophy * Phenomenology (philosophy), a branch of philosophy which studies subjective experiences and a ...

description (Schneider 1930;''et al.'') allowed for further definition on the basis of formal characteristic rather than content, producing later practice relying upon clinical assessment (Andreasen 1979). The term has undergone a re-definition to refer only to a persons speech in response to a question, and to provide the definition separation from the similar symptoms ''loosening of association'' and

derailment In rail transport, a derailment occurs when a rail vehicle such as a train comes off its rails. Although many derailments are minor, all result in temporary disruption of the proper operation of the railway system and they are a potentially ...

(Andreasen 1979).

Other

According to the St. Louis system for the diagnosis of schizophrenia, tangentiality is significantly associated with a low IQ prior to diagnosis (AU Parnas ''et al'' 2007).

References

{{Reflist Aphasias Symptoms and signs of mental disorders Communication disorders

Definition

History

Other

See also

References