Speech disorders in patients with suicidal behaviour accompanied by different types of dementia

Introduction. All over the world, dementias draw the scientific interest of psychiatrists and neurologists, as they belong to the most common mental illnesses in the old and senile age. Methods. Speech disorders in patients with dementia accompanied by Alzheimer's disease (AD) and vascular dementia (VD) accompanied by suicidal behaviour (SB) were studied using clinical and psychopathological methods. Two hundred three patients were examined, including 75 subjects with dementia accompanied by AD, 73 subjects – by VD, and 60 subjects – by MD. Patients were divided into main and control groups according to the presence/absence of SB signs. As a result of the study, it was established that stereotypy of oral speech prevailed in patients with SB (69.23% in the main group and 76.47% in the control group). Bradylalia (53.85%), motor (38.46%) and acoustic-amnestic aphasia (35.90%) were also found in the main group. In the control group, the top place was occupied by acoustic-amnestic and optic-amnestic aphasia ((50.00) and (47.06) %, respectively). Written speech disorders were presented by dysgraphia (28.21% in the main group and 38.24% in the control group). Patients with SB accompanied by VD differed from the control group by the prevalence of bradylalia (DC = -2.21; MI = 0.24; p ≤ 0.05). Language function disorders in patients with AD were stereotypical (88.89% in the main group and 97.44% in the control group). Patients with SB were characterized by the speech slowing (47.22%), (DC = -3.11; MI = 0.38; p ≤ 0.01). Oral speech disorders were manifested in acoustic-amnestic (50.00% – for the main and 58.97% – for the control group), optical-amnestic (41.67% – for the main and 43.59% – for the control group), and semantic (36.11% – for the main and 23.08% – for the control group) aphasias. Written speech disorders were mainly manifested in dysgraphia (27.78% for the main group and 23.08% for the control group).