[Developmental stuttering and acquired stuttering: resemblances and differences]

In this study the authors analyse, clinically, dysphemia (DP) and acquired stuttering (AS). AIMS. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether AS is a variant of DP or whether it is an entity that shares a common element: stuttered speech.

The authors studied 13 patients with AS and 36 with DP. In addition to the clinical evaluation, electroencephalogram (EEG) and cranial computerised axial tomography (CAT) scans were performed, with a special interest in secondary symptoms/signs, laterality profiles and pathological, personal and familial history.

There was a notable predominance in males in both groups. AS began either in infancy or from any other age; DP only started in infancy. The most frequent organic pathology, for both DP and AS, was a severe traumatic brain injury, followed by cerebral anoxia/hypoxia, cerebrovascular accident (CVA) and others. One important element in both groups was the presence of stuttering and high percentages of left-handedness in the families. In AS, all patients were right-handed. None of the patients who experienced the onset of AS in infancy improved/yielded during adolescence.

Both DP and AS are cases of "neurogenic" stuttering because they display organic and/or functional pathologies in the two groups, which invalidates the term "developmental", since AS also occurred in infancy. DP and AS have an element in common: they both share a genetic predisposition on which the organic/functional pathology then gives rise to the clinical symptoms, although this does not account for the absence of tics in AS.