A 56-yrs-old man is brought to you by his wife because she has noted his personality change in the past 3 months. While the patient is being interviewed, he answers every question with the same three words. Which symptom best fits this patient's behavior? NOT RELATED-PSYCHIATRY

In perseveration, the patient displays an inability to change the topic or gives the same response to different questions i.e. repetition beyond point of relevance in response to stimulus. The stereotype is a repetitive non goal directed movement. Where as the mannerism is repetitive goal directed movements. Circumstantiality is a disturbance in which the patient digresses into unnecessary details before communicating the central idea.The capacity to generalize and to formulate concepts is called abstract thinking. The inability to abstract is called concreteness and is seen in organic disorders and sometimes in schizophrenia.meaning of proverbs.Negative symptoms include a motivation, apathy, and social withdrawalThese symptoms are often seen in schizophrenia.