Office Hours: The Professor is In

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Re: Neurotransmitters/ Dopamine

From: Ken St. Louis
Date: 10/2/03
Time: 8:50:31 AM
Remote Name: 157.182.12.31

Comments

Hi Rick,

It's fantastic that you found a "cure" for your stuttering. I have reached the point where I never dismiss any real experience that someone has and believe that we need to incorporate those experiences into the every growing knowledge base for stuttering.

I am not an expert on drug treatments of stuttering but know that there is yet to occur a series of clinical trials that show that stuttering can be essentially eliminated by any particular drug. Instead, it seems that most of the drugs that have been tried have variable effects, that is, they work well on some stutterers but not so well--or not at all--on others. Other drugs seem to make speech therapy a bit easier for the majority of subjects studied.

I would presume that it is premature to know exactly what has happened in your case. Dopamine levels can be modified in lots of ways. But your experience is clearly significant. You mention your "own research." Do you have stuttering frequency counts or severity ratings as a function of propranolol levels? Were these objectively obtained and checked for reliability? If so, you might have the raw material for a useful case study (of yourself) for and ASHA Convention or even a publication.

Thanks for the interesting post.

Ken


Last changed: September 12, 2005