Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Stuttering Medication

Stuttering remains one of the unsolved mysteries in the world of medical science. Many theories have shown different causes and effects for this problem of speech disorder though none of it has been proved thus far. Because of the uncertainty of its causes, appropriate medication has thus far not been discovered by the speCialists. Research is going on in this area to effectively find remedy for the stuttering problem.

In spite of all this, there are a few medicines which are capable of reducing the stutter to a certain extent. But these medicines seem to have different effect on different people and were able to lessen the stutter only by 50%. Because of the uncertain effects of theses medicines on different sets of people much has been left to chance. The stutterers have to take the risk of consuming the medicine to check if it personally works for them.

Dopamine antagonist medicines are known to suppress stuttering. This is because it is observed that the brains of stutterers are found to contain high levels of dopamine. Haldol, Risperdal and Zyprexa are just some of the dopamine antagonist medicines which are known to work on a majority of stutterers. As mentioned above, they have different effects on different people. While for some people, the reduction in stuttering is well noticed for some others it worsens and in some cases it has also shown unpleasant side-effects. Also, stutterers who could be on medication for other problems need to be wary of taking these medicines because when taken with other medicines, these ones could cause severe side-effects on reaction with the other medicines.

On top of having to take so many precautions, stutterers must also be cautious against some other medicines which are known to trigger or worsen stuttering. Prozac and Zoloft are two drugs which are dopamine agonists and hence increase the dopamine level which are reasonable for aggravating stuttering.

Before taking up any medication, stutterers must consult their speech pathologists or therapists and only with their acknowledgement should they consume it. The stutterers must also realize that the medications do not work unless they are taken along with the speech therapy treatment. This means that the intake of just a pill will not cure stuttering and speech exercises are essential to ensure complete recovery from stuttering. And as always a patient mind and a calm persona can always help the stutterer in achieving a speedy recovery.

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