Palilalia: a descriptive study of pathological reiterative utterances

Palilalia is an acquired speech disorder characterized by reiteration of utterances in a context of increasing rate and decreasing loudness. The condition has been associated with bilateral subcortical neuropathological. The relationship of palilalia to other adult disfluency syndromes, aphasia, and motor speech disorders requires a through understanding of the nature of palilalic speech. To date no detailed description of the nature and severity of palilalic reiteration has appeared in the literature. This case report systematically describes seven distinct types of reiteration, frequency (severity) of reiteration relative to seven types of speech tasks, and consistently and adaptation effects observed in a 29-year-old male.