A nearly continuous flow of accelerated speech with abrupt changes from one topic to another, usually based on understandable associations, distracting stimuli, or playing on words. When severe, however, this may lead to disorganized and incoherent speech. Flight of ideas is characteristic of manic episodes, but it also may occur in dementia, schizophrenia, other psychoses, and, rarely, acute reactions to stress.
Verbal skipping from one idea to another. The ideas appear to be continuous but are fragmentary and determined by chance or temporal associations. Sometimes seen in bipolar disorder.
The rapid succession of ideas with-out logical association or continuity.