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From: Klaas Bakker, Missouri State University, Springfield MO
Date: 14 Oct 2011
Time: 15:47:43 -0500
Remote Name: 99.45.209.96
Irene, I have to admit that I have not yet read paper, but was intrigued by your question. I agree with Lynne that pure and clearly identifiable cases of spasmodic dysphonia are quite uncommon (let's assume 1 out of 1000 in the population), and also stuttering being a relatively low incidence problem (1 out of 100 prevalence, 1 out of 20 incidence) and assuming there aren't reasons for having one condition affecting the incidence of the other, you would have 1 out of 20,000. Of course this may be wrong for various reasons. Spasmodic dysphonia may be by itself or be part of a larger neurogenic picture. Also, the prevalence of stuttering at young ages is greater than older, while spasmodic dysphonia usually starts later in life...... Now comes another question, what if one does have an effect on the other, or presents itself as a coexisting sign of the other? I believe the current interpretation of spasmodic dysphonia is that it involves a "focal dystonia" specific to the larynx. This would be very different than stuttering and suggest that typically they aren't related. On the other hand there is the appealing notion of similarity with uncontrollable spasms at the laryngeal level blocking you in the flow of speech. Fascinating. I am rambling, and after reading your paper I may have other thoughts about your questions.