From a neurology perspective, stuttering is a complex speech fluency disorder arising from brain network disruptions responsible for timing, motor control, and language processing. There is evidence that stuttering involves abnormalities in dopaminergic signaling, which may explain why some dopamine-modulating medications show benefit in subsets of patients.
Yoshikazu Kikuchi, MD, PhD, one of the international experts presenting at the STARS Conference, shared highlights from his research and experience in supporting individuals who stutter. Kikuchi shared his insights with Psychiatric Times in an exclusive interview.
“I’ve been on pharmacologic treatment for the past 3 years, and it’s totally changed the way that I’ve been able to communicate,” Samuel B. told Psychiatric Times during an exclusive interview at the STARS (Stuttering Treatment and Research Society) Research and Education Conference in Dana Point, California.
Data from genetic and comorbidity studies may provide additional insight into understanding stuttering and developing better treatment strategies, according to a presentation by Shelly Jo Kraft, PhD, MS, at the STARS (Stuttering Treatment and Research Society) Inaugural Education and Research Conference.
“Stuttering is a unique condition in that it is labeled in the ICD [International Classification of Diseases], its labeled in DSM, yet we have no effective treatments for this condition that has existed since really the dawn of human history,” Gerald A. Maguire, MD, told Psychiatric Times in an exclusive interview at the STARS Inaugural Education and Research Conference.
At a recent conference on stuttering, Shahriar SheikhBahaei, PhD, assistant professor of neurobiology and behavior at SUNY Stony Brook University, discussed new insights into the neurobiology of speech and the mechanisms that may contribute to stuttering.