[ Contents | Next | Previous | Up ]
From: Maggie Mitchell
Date: 10/7/03
Time: 5:36:26 PM
Remote Name: 134.29.48.23
This summer I interned at a Rehabilitation Center and had a patient with Parkinson's on my caseload. He too suffered from stuttering behaviors whenever his medication was wearing off or when he was tired. If he had just taken his medication then he was completely fluent, though quiet. And then they switched medications on him, making it impossible for him to speak at all for the first few hours after taking the new meds. When he would regain the ability to phonate, the stuttering was immediately there, consisting mostly of blocks and initial syllable or sound prolongations. We worked on teaching him techniques to use when his meds were wearing off or changed, or when he was tired. It was truly amazing to hear him be completely fluent at breakfast but struggling to speak at lunch or vice versa.
As far as a connection, I am not too sure. As a graduate student I am learning more and more, but as I understand it, Parkinson's is more a motor problem and the stuttering results from poor motor control (increased or decreased depending on meds and other factors). Maybe stuttering has more of a neurological basis than some people think...