International Stuttering Awareness Day: Why Psychiatrists Should Pay Attention

As International Stuttering Awareness Day is observed on October 22, Gerald Maguire, MD, psychiatrist and president and founder of the Stuttering Treatment and Research Society (STARS), urged his colleagues to take a closer look at a condition that has long been overlooked within psychiatry and medicine.

Why Is Stuttering Awareness Important in Psychiatry?

“Why should psychiatrists care? Because we have labeled the condition of stuttering, currently labeled in DSM-5 as childhood onset fluency disorder, yet we ignore it,” Maguire told Psychiatric Times.

Although stuttering is a neurologic condition, Maguire said it often has neuropsychiatric manifestations. Stuttering “may coexist with ADHD, can often coexist with obsessive-compulsive disorder, but even more commonly with a condition known as social anxiety disorder,” he explained. “So it’s important for us to continue to work to educate my fellow psychiatrists, so we can work as a team with other health care professionals (speech-language pathologists) to improve the lives of over 4% of all children and 1% of all adults who struggle with stuttering.”

What Are Some Tips for Talking With Patients Who Stutter?

A first priority is to maintain eye contact, said Maguire, who is also chair and director of residency training at College Medical Center in Long Beach, California, and staff psychiatrist and director of graduate medical education at Oroville Hospital in Oroville, California. Allowing patients a safe space to communicate is also important. As such, clinicians should “allow your patient the opportunity to express themselves in any means that they feel comfortable. Take the time, maintain that eye contact, and please don’t try to fill in the word for them because it may be incorrect.”

Psychiatric clinicians should address coexisting psychiatric issues, like social anxiety disorder. “If we do treat their ADHD, [for example,] if they're presenting for that, we want to make sure that we're not making their stuttering worse,” he said.

Although promising treatments are being studied, he added there is no approved targeted treatments for stuttering. There is some evidence for off-label use of existing psychotropics indicated for tic disorders or Tourette disorder, he told Psychiatric Times.

Where Can Clinicians Learn More?

Maguire founded the nonprofit organization STARS to foster ongoing dialogues with clinicians and researchers in different fields, advance neuroscience-based research into the cause of stuttering and potential treatments, he told Psychiatric Times. Earlier this year, STARS hosted their inaugural research and education conference, bringing together international experts and patient advocates.

The STARS website explores clinical and research issues associated with stuttering, including dopamine dysregulation, basal ganglia dysfunction, genetic links, and combination therapies.