Thought blocking

Thought blocking is a neuropsychological symptom expressing a sudden and involuntary silence within a speech, and eventually an abrupt switch to another topic. Persons undergoing thought blocking may utter incomprehensible speech; they may also repeat words involuntarily or make up new words. The main causes of thought blocking are schizophrenia, anxiety disorders, petit mal seizures, post-traumatic stress disorder, bradyphrenia, aphasia, dementia and delirium. Thought blocking occurs most often in people with psychiatric illnesses, most commonly schizophrenia. A person's speech is suddenly interrupted by silences that may last a few seconds to a minute or longer. When the person begins speaking again, after the block, they will often speak about an unrelated subject. Blocking is also described as an experience of unanticipated, quick and total emptying of the mind. People with schizophrenia commonly experience thought blocking and may interpret the experience in peculiar ways. For example, a person with schizophrenia might remark that another person has removed their thoughts from their brain. When evaluating a patient for schizophrenia, a physician may look for thought blocking. In schizophrenia, patients experience two types of symptoms: positive and negative. Positive symptoms include behavior added on to a person's daily functioning. For instance, delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, disorganized behavior and thought are all positive symptoms. In contrast, negative symptoms are characterized by missing parts of the average individual's persona, including flat affect, apathy, speaking very little, not finding enjoyment in any activity, and not attending to basic acts of daily living (ADLs), such as bathing, eating, and wearing clean clothes. Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is defined as excessive worry about matters in two or more separate subjects for at least six months. When a person experiences an anxiety attack, they may become so hyperfocused on the distressing stimuli and/or overwhelmed with the situation that regular speech is difficult for that person to produce.