Logorrhea is a communication disorder marked by excessive and often uncontrolled talking. An individual with logorrhea may speak rapidly and at length, sometimes jumping from topic to topic, with speech that can be rambling, tangential, or difficult to follow (often lacking meaningful content despite the high word output). This behavior is frequently observed in certain neurological or psychiatric conditions; for example, it is a hallmark of Wernicke’s aphasia (a type of fluent aphasia), in which a person can speak fluently but with many irrelevant or nonsensical words, and it can also occur in manic episodes of bipolar disorder or in some forms of schizophrenia. The incessant speech of logorrhea poses challenges for effective communication, as the speaker may not self-monitor or allow turn-taking. SLPs working with patients exhibiting logorrhea focus on strategies to improve self-awareness and control of speech – such as practicing pausing, turn-taking cues, and topic maintenance – and they may educate communication partners on how to manage conversations and gain the patient’s attention to foster more coherent interaction.
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