Positron-emission tomographic (PET) studies and genetic research of stuttering have recently revealed underlying cerebral neurobiologic contributing factors in this disorder. We aimed to assess whether cognitive impairment and other neuropsychiatric dimensions could be detected through computerized content analysis of short samples of speech from stutterers, and whether administration of risperidone in a double-blind placebo-controlled study could decrease the severity of stuttering, as well as any of the neuropsychiatric features of these stutterers. A group of 21 stutterers with the developmental form of stuttering, an onset before age of 6 years, aged 20 to 74 years, and who were otherwise free of major medical or psychiatric problems, initially gave a 5-minute tape-recorded speech sample in response to purposely ambiguous instructions to talk about any interesting or dramatic life experiences. Then, half of these subjects (n = 10) were randomly selected to receive 6 weeks of risperidone treatment up to 2.0 mg/d and the other half (n = 11) were administered a placebo. Both groups of subjects gave a second verbal sample after 6 weeks of treatment. Significantly elevated cognitive impairment and social alienation-personal disorganization scores, derived from the computerized content of the initial 5-minute speech samples, were found. After 6 weeks, the risperidone group improved significantly on a measure of severity of stuttering but did not improve on the percentage of time spent stuttering. The placebo group did not improve on either measure of stuttering. The psychopathological processes of subjects who received risperidone treatment, including those with elevated cognitive impairment and social alienation-personal disorganization, did not change significantly. However, stutterers who had lower scores on verbal content analysis-derived shame anxiety, guilt anxiety, or hostility inward measures improved significantly more with risperidone than stutterers with higher scores on these measures. The findings of elevated cognitive impairment and social alienation-personal disorganization scores of adult stutterers with the early developmental form of stuttering are consistent with the neurobiologic abnormalities found in PET-scan and genetic research involving stutterers. Risperidone (< or =2.0 mg/d) can reduce the severity of stuttering while not significantly affecting the magnitude of neuropsychiatric dimensions such as cognitive impairment or social alienation-personal disorganization. The less the inward shame, guilt, or hostility of the stutterers, the better the beneficial effect of risperidone on the severity of stuttering.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Computerized measurement of cognitive impairment and associated neuropsychiatric dimensions.

This study aimed to cross-validate the capacity of a computer software program to detect and measure, using a measurement method applied to the content and form analysis of 5-minute speech samples, cognitive impairment and associated comorbid neuropsychiatric psychobiological dimensions in drug-abusing patients. At the University of California-Irvine (UCI) Neuropsychiatric Center, 28 drug-abusing inpatients using illegal drugs were clinically evaluated. Their scores for cognitive impairment derived by the computerized content analysis method were compared with scores derived from selected tests from the Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological Test Battery, the computerized Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metric Battery (ANAM), the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive Portion, the Stroop Color and Word Test, the Symbol Digit Modalities Test, and the Controlled Oral Word Association Test. The statistical significance (P value) of the correlations of scores from these different measures with scores obtained from the computerized content analysis measures was less than .05 to .001. The comparative "hit rate," detecting cognitive impairment above the norms for each measure administered to these drug-abusing patients, for the computerized content analysis measures and some of the ANAM neuropsychological measures was 75% to 89%, and for the other neuropsychological measures, 25% to 64%. In conclusion, the computerized content analysis methodology applied to 5-minute verbal samples is a valid, rapid, easily administered measurement instrument for assessing the magnitude of cognitive impairment and comorbid neuropsychiatric dimensions.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Delayed tooth eruption in congenital hypertrichosis lanuginosa.

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Child, Preschool↗