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Speech and voice disorders in patients with psychogenic movement disorders

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Abstract

Psychogenic speech and voice disorders (PSVDs) may occur in isolation but more typically are encountered in the setting of other psychogenic disorders. We aimed to characterize the phenomenology, frequency, and correlates of PSVDs in a cohort of patients with psychogenic movement disorders (PMDs). We studied 182 consecutive patients with PMDs, 30 of whom (16.5 %) also exhibited PSVD. Stuttering was the most common speech abnormality (n = 16, 53.3 %), followed by speech arrests (n = 4, 13.3 %), foreign accent syndrome (n = 2, 6.6 %), hypophonia (n = 2, 6.6 %), and dysphonia (n = 2, 6.6 %). Four patients (13.2 %) had more complex presentations with different combinations of these patterns. No differences in gender, age at onset, and distribution of PMDs were observed between patients with and without PSVD. PSVDs are relatively frequent in patients with PMDs and are manifested by a wide variety of abnormal speech and voice phenomena, with stuttering being the most common presentation. Speech therapy and insight-oriented counseling may be helpful to some patients.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Parkinson’s Disease Center and Movement Disorders Clinic, Department of Neurology, Baylor College of Medicine, 7200 Cambridge, Suite 9A, MS: BCM 609, Houston, TX, 77030-4202, USA

    José Fidel Baizabal-Carvallo & Joseph Jankovic

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  1. José Fidel Baizabal-Carvallo
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  2. Joseph Jankovic
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Correspondence to José Fidel Baizabal-Carvallo.

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On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

Electronic supplementary material

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Video 1: This is a 50-year-old man with recent history of severe generalized tremor presents severe psychogenic stuttering while reading the “Rainbow passage” (MPG 8747 kb)

Video 2: This is a 22-year-old woman, with psychogenic stuttering, hand fidgeting and brief dystonic postures (MPG 10169 kb)

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Baizabal-Carvallo, J.F., Jankovic, J. Speech and voice disorders in patients with psychogenic movement disorders. J Neurol 262, 2420–2424 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00415-015-7856-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00415-015-7856-7

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