Alogia

In psychology, alogia (/ˌeɪˈloʊdʒiə, əˈloʊdʒiə, əˈlɒdʒiə, -dʒə/; from Greek ἀ-, "without", and λόγος, "speech" + New Latin -ia)^[1][2][3] is poor thinking inferred from speech and language usage.^[4] There may be a general lack of additional, unprompted content seen in normal speech, so replies to questions may be brief and concrete, with less spontaneous speech. This is termed poverty of speech^[4] or laconic speech.^[5] The amount of speech may be normal but conveys little information because it is vague, empty, stereotyped, overconcrete, overabstract, or repetitive.^[4][6] This is termed poverty of content^[4] or poverty of content of speech.^[6] Under Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms used in clinical research, thought blocking is considered a part of alogia, and so is increased latency in response.^[7]

This condition is associated with schizophrenia, dementia, severe depression, and autism.^[8][9] As a symptom, it is commonly seen in patients with schizophrenia and schizotypal personality disorder, and is traditionally considered a negative symptom. It can complicate psychotherapy severely because of the considerable difficulty in holding a fluent conversation.

The alternative meaning of alogia is inability to speak because of dysfunction in the central nervous system,^[10][3] found in mental deficiency and dementia.^[11][3] In this sense, the word is synonymous with aphasia,^[3] and in less severe form, it is sometimes called dyslogia.^[10]