Principal and differential effects of haoperidol and placebo treatments upon speech disfuluencies in stutterers.
Fourteen stutterers completed a double-blind crossover study of the effects of Haloperidol and Placebo treatments upon their speech disfluencies. Although clearly not clinically effective, Haloperidol had a statistically significant effect upon reducing disfluency frequency and increasing speaking rate. For most subjects, drug-related reductions in disfluency severity resulted from a decrement in whole-word and phrase repetition, interjection, and revision-type disfluencies rather than from fewer part-word (elemental) repetitions and prolongations of sound or of silence. Neurotic personality profile correlated positively with an overall placebo effect, and there was a positive correlation between abnormal EEG and the drug effect. These findings are discussed in light of the nature of speech disfluency and stuttering and Haloperidol's biochemical and behavioral actions.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005260:Female; D006220:Haloperidol / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009497:Neurotic Disorders / Q000150:complications; D010919:Placebos / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D013342:Stuttering / Q000150:complications / Q000188:drug therapy*
D010919:Placebos; D006220:Haloperidol