Linguistic analysis of patients with mood and anxiety disorders during cognitive behavioral therapy
Abstract
We analyzed the verbal behavior of patients with mood or/and anxiety disorders during psychotherapy. Investigating the words people used, we expected differences due to cognitive and emotional foci in patients with depression vs. anxiety. Transcripts of therapy sessions from 85 outpatients treated with cognitive behavioral therapy were analyzed using the software program Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count. Multivariate group comparisons were carried out investigating the LIWC-categories first-person-singular pronouns, sad, anxiety and fillers. Differences between the three diagnostic groups were found in verbal utterances related to sadness (p = .05). No differences were found for first-person-singular pronouns and content-free fillers. Comparing the distinct groups "depression" and "anxiety", depressed patients used more words related to sadness (p = .01). Mood and anxiety disorders differ in the experience of emotions, but only slightly in self-focused attention. This points to differences in language use for different diagnostic groups and may help to improve diagnostic procedures or language-driven interventions which enhance therapists' attention to patients' verbal behavior.
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Prior work has found that depressed individuals use words related to sadness and somatic health concerns (health and biology words).
“These include words related to sadness, as well as words related to somatic health concerns (health and biology words, with the biology category combining body, health, sexual, and ingestion words) [22,23].”
From Behavioral Activation and Depression Symptomatology: Longitudinal Assessment of Linguistic Indicators in Text-Based Therapy Sessions (2021) · cites this paper as [22]
Counting words belonging to semantic and syntactic categories is simple yet effective, as demonstrated in countless experiments across several fields.
“Counting words belonging to semantic and syntactic categories is simple yet effective, as demonstrated in countless experiments across several fields [14,20,22,24,43,44].”
From Behavioral Activation and Depression Symptomatology: Longitudinal Assessment of Linguistic Indicators in Text-Based Therapy Sessions (2021) · cites this paper as [22]
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- Authors
- Sonnenschein, A. R., Hofmann, S. G., Ziegelmayer, T., & Lutz, W.
- Affiliations
- Universität Trier (DE)
- Boston University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Lutz, Wolfgang
- Venue
- Cognitive Behaviour Therapy
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2018-01-18
- Volume
- 47
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 315-327
- ISSN
- 1650-6073 (ISSN-L)
- 1651-2316
- OpenAlex
- W2793244201
- Cited by
- 68
- References
- 49
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 1
- FWCI
- 8.14
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG LU 660/10, DFG LU 660/8)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health via Writing
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications
- Keywords
- mood disorders, anxiety disorders, depression, cognitive behavioral therapy, verbal behavior, linguistic analysis, LIWC, sadness, first-person singular pronouns, fillers, self-focus, emotional experience
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Anxiety Disorders, Depressive Disorder, Emotions, Female, Humans, Language, Linguistics, Male, Middle Aged, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Mood Disorders, Young Adult
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