poverty of speech

n. An inability to generate spontaneous speech or varied or elaborate responses to questions. Patients with this symptom respond to open-ended questions (e.g., “Describe how your mood has been lately” or “Tell me about your childhood”) almost entirely in very short phrases (e.g., “OK” or “It was good”). This symptom is also called alogia and is a common negative symptom of schizophrenia. These short responses are not thought to be motivated by a resistance to respond to open-ended questions (i.e., giving limited information as a way of preventing the interviewer from knowing more) but instead are thought to result from a lack of varied or spontaneous responses for whatever reason (e.g., being preoccupied with internal stimuli). – DGa