New Clues into Stuttering May Be Found in Genes

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Re: What happens next?

From: Dennis Drayna
Date: 13 Oct 2005
Time: 11:41:08 -0500
Remote Name: 165.112.46.123

Comments

Hi Amy, Thanks for your questions. I think much of my comments are best said in my reply to Alan Badmington's questions, posted above. The short answer for stuttering therapists is nothing at the moment. It can take years between our understanding of the cause of a disorder and improved treatment for that disorder. On the other hand, we have to start somewhere, and discovering at least some of the causes of stuttering would give us a starting point. Right now, I think there are some studies that could be done, however. For example, it's well known that stuttering therapy produces mixed results. We could ask whether this might be due to the fact that a given therapist often tries to apply one therapy regimen to all PWS. We could ask whether results are different in genetic vs. non-genetic cases of the disorder, or whether one particular therapy regimen works better in one group or another. If and when we have a specific genetic alteration that appears to cause stuttering, we could ask these questions again. Perhaps the reason a particular therapy succeeds in some individuals is that they stutter due to a particular genetic alteration they have inherited.


Last changed: 11/01/05