Investigating and Addressing Comorbid ADHD and Stuttering at APSARD

There is a need for greater clinical attention to be paid at the intersection of stuttering and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Gerald A. Maguire, MD, told Psychiatric Times at the American Professional Society of ADHD and Related Disorders (APSARD) 2026 Annual Conference. The comorbidity remains underrecognized and thus not sufficiently addressed, despite growing evidence and real-world consequences for patients, added Maguire, founder and president of the Stuttering Treatment and Research Society (STARS) and director of residency training and chair of psychiatry at College Medical Center in Long Beach, California.

Maguire heralded the APSARD Annual Conference as an important opportunity both to learn and to educate colleagues. “I’m really excited for me to learn as a clinician and as a researcher,” he said, “because stuttering and ADHD often coexist.”

Although stuttering is recognized in the DSM-5, it has historically received limited attention in medical training. “Talking to some of my great colleagues here, they'd say, well, we don't treat stuttering, but wait, we label it. Yeah, let's focus on this.”

Maguire is building bridges for clinicians and patients alike. “It makes sense that we should work together, bring this together, and improve the lives of people who stutter, especially those at this conference, focusing on those with coexisting ADHD and stuttering,” he has told colleagues. “Getting great minds together will improve the lives of the millions of people who stutter.”

In addition, the comorbidity can often present as a challenging treatment dilemma, Maguire said. While stimulant medications can improve a patient’s ADHD, it also can significantly worsen stuttering symptoms.

The clinical trade-off can be profound, he added. “The stimulant helps with the grades, but now they struggle with more stuttering,” Maguire said. “So then the avoidances begin, the withdrawal, the social issues with that.” He noted that this pattern highlights a deeper biological connection between the two conditions.

Maguire dedicated the nonprofit organization STARS to “to improving the lives of people who stutter through advancing neuroscience research and therapies.” Among his goals is to address the information gaps via collaboration and education, and he has partnered with Psychiatric Times and the St. Louis University School of Medicine, the latter helps to provide free educational content and CME courses for physicians, advanced practice clinicians, psychologists, and speech-language pathologists. “We need to work together,” Maguire said. “Treatments respond, and diagnostic accuracy improves when we bring multiple teams together.”

Looking ahead, Maguire said STARS is convening a multidisciplinary expert panel to develop diagnostic guidance and clinical pathways. “We’re going to have published guidelines,” he said. “Getting groups of individuals across disciplines together” is essential, he added, particularly given that “a lot of what we know is that we don’t know much.”

Progress will require both scientific leadership and patient input, Maguire said. “Not one-size-fits-all and not one approach will work for all,” he said. “We want this to come not only from top down…but also from the community.”