In the mental health field, schizophasia or word salad is language that is confused and often repetitious, symptomatic of various mental illnesses.

It is usually associated with a manic presentation of bipolar affective disorder and other symptoms of serious mental illnesses, such as psychosis, including schizophrenia. It is characterized by an apparently confused usage of words with no apparent meaning or relationship attached to them. In this context, it is considered to be a symptom of a formal thought disorder. In some cases schizophasia can be a sign of asymptomatic schizophrenia; e.g. the question "Why do people believe in God?" could elicit a response consisting of a series of words commonly associated with religion or prayer but strung together with no regard to language rules.

Schizophasia should be contrasted with another symptom of cognitive disruption and cognitive slippage involving certain idiosyncratic arrangements of words. With this symptom, the language may or may not be grammatically correct depending on the severity of the disease and the particular mechanisms which have been impacted by the disease.

The American diagnostic codes, from the "DSM-IV", do not specifically code for this disorder although they include it as a symptom under the diagnosis of schizophrenia.

The condition is also known as hebephrenia, named after the Greek term for "adolescence" – "ἥβη" (hḗbē), and possibly the Ancient Greek goddess of youth, Hebe, daughter of Hera. The term refers to the ostensibly more prominent appearance of the disorder in persons around puberty.

The prominent characteristics of this form are disorganized behavior and speech (see formal thought disorder), including loosened associations and schizophasia ("word salad"), and flat or inappropriate affect. In addition, psychiatrists must rule out any possible sign of catatonic schizophrenia.

The most prominent features of disorganized schizophrenia are not delusions and hallucinations, as they are in paranoid schizophrenia, although fragmentary delusions, unsystemized and often hypochondriacal, and hallucinations may be present. A person with disorganized schizophrenia may also experience behavioral disorganization, which may impair his or her ability to carry out daily activities such as showering or eating.

The emotional responses of such people often seem strange or inappropriate. Inappropriate facial responses may be common, and behavior is sometimes described as 'silly', such as inappropriate laughter. Sometimes, there is a complete lack of emotion, including anhedonia (the lack of pleasure), and avolition (a lack of motivation). Some of these features are also present in other types of schizophrenia, but they are most prominent in disorganized schizophrenia.

Disorganized schizophrenia, also known as hebephrenia or hebephrenic schizophrenia, is a subtype of schizophrenia, although it is not recognized in the latest version of the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders". It's recognized only in the 10th revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10).

Disorganized schizophrenia is thought to be an extreme expression of the "disorganization syndrome" that has been hypothesized to be one aspect of a three-factor model of symptoms in schizophrenia, the other factors being "reality distortion" (involving delusions and hallucinations) and "psychomotor poverty" (lack of speech, lack of spontaneous movement and various aspects of blunting of emotion).

Word salad is a "confused or unintelligible mixture of seemingly random words and phrases", most often used to describe a symptom of a neurological or mental disorder. The words may or may not be grammatically correct, but are semantically confused to the point that the listener cannot extract any meaning from them. The term is often used in psychiatry as well as in theoretical linguistics to describe a type of grammatical acceptability judgment by native speakers, and in computer programming to describe textual randomization.

Word salad may describe a symptom of neurological or psychiatric conditions in which a person attempts to communicate an idea, but words and phrases that may appear to be random and unrelated come out in an incoherent sequence instead. Often, the person is unaware that he or she did not make sense. It appears in people with dementia and schizophrenia, as well as after anoxic brain injury. Clang associations are especially characteristic of mania, as seen in bipolar disorder, as a somewhat more severe variation of flight of ideas. In extreme mania, the patient's speech may become incoherent, with associations markedly loosened, thus presenting as a veritable word salad.

It may be present as:

- Clanging, a speech pattern that follows rhyming and other sound associations rather than meaning

- Graphorrhea, a written version of word salad that is more rarely seen than logorrhea in people with schizophrenia.

- Logorrhea, a mental condition characterized by excessive talking (incoherent and compulsive)

- Receptive aphasia

- Schizophasia, a mental condition characterized by incoherent babbling (compulsive or intentional, but nonsensical)

Language disorders or language impairments are disorders that involve the processing of linguistic information. Problems that may be experienced can involve grammar (syntax and/or morphology), semantics (meaning), or other aspects of language. These problems may be receptive (involving impaired language comprehension), expressive (involving language production), or a combination of both. Examples include specific language impairment and aphasia, among others. Language disorders can affect both spoken and written language, and can also affect sign language; typically, all forms of language will be impaired.

Current data indicates that 7% of young children display language disorder, with boys being diagnosed twice as much as girls.

Preliminary research on potential risk factors have suggested biological components, such as low-birth weight, prematurity, general birth complications, and male gender, as well as family history and low parental education can increase the chance of developing language disorders.

For children with phonological and expressive language difficulties, there is evidence supporting speech and language therapy. However, the same therapy is shown to be much less effective for receptive language difficulties. These results are consistent with the poorer prognosis for receptive language impairments that are generally accompanied with problems in reading comprehension.

Note that these are distinct from speech disorders, which involve difficulty with the act of speech production, but not with language.

Language disorders tend to manifest in two different ways: receptive language disorders (where one cannot properly comprehend language) and expressive language disorders (where one cannot properly communicate their intended message).

Receptive language disorders can be acquired or developmental (most often the latter). When developmental, difficulties in spoken language tend to occur before three years of age. Usually such disorders are accompanied by expressive language disorders.

However, unique symptoms and signs of a receptive language disorder include: struggling to understand meanings of words and sentences, struggling to put words in proper order, and inability to follow verbal instruction.

Treatment options include: language therapy, special education classes for children at school, and a psychologist if accompanying behavioral problems are present.