Co-morbid Psychiatric Symptoms in Adolescent Stutterers: An Egyptian Sample

Background: Stuttering is a fluency disorder in which an individual’s ability to produce speech effortlessly and automatically is seriously compromised. Although the majority of children who begin to stutter will recover naturally, stuttering will become an intractable problem for small of them. In Egypt it occurs in prevalence of 0.29- 0.55%. Stuttering as one of speech disorders is characterized by developmental histories often marked by bullying, poor peer relationships and many negative social interactions. Therefore, it seems clear that stuttering carry a significant risk of co-morbid psychiatric symptoms, these psychiatric symptoms appear in children and persist into adulthood. Theories behind the relation between stuttering and mental health disorders are complex in nature. Some authors claimed that both developmental stuttering and some psychiatric disabilities have a genetic component in their origin.

Objective: To determine co-morbid psychiatric symptoms in adolescent stutterers

Methods: This cross- sectional study was conducted on three groups (children, pre adolescents and adolescents) with age ranged 6-18 years complaining of stuttering; attending the pediatric and phoniatric clinics in a private Egyptian centre. Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) (to illustrate the psychiatric symptoms) and Stuttering Severity Instrument 2 (SSI2) were applied on all of them.

Results: Co-morbid psychiatric symptoms were associated with stuttering. It was found that psychiatric co-morbidities aggravated stuttering severity. Such results agreed with what has been reported in literature. These psychiatric symptoms appeared in children, pre- adolescents and became more prominent in adolescents.

Conclusion: present study demonstrated stuttering as a heterogeneous group of disorders. Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) is mandatory for those stutterers who suffer from co-morbid psychiatric symptoms in addition to the ordinary management program which includes speech assessment and intervention. On the other hand CBT should be used as prophylaxis in stutterers without co-morbid psychiatric symptoms.