Olanzapine for the treatment of acquired neurogenic stuttering

Abstract

Stuttering is a vocal phenomenon, which manifests itself as disturbances in speech fluency. While stuttering is most commonly treated with speech therapy and psychotherapy, a number of antipsychotic agents have been investigated as possible treatments. We present the case of a 37-year-old man who developed a post-concussive syndrome with psychosis and associated stuttering after his second exposure to a blast from an improvised explosive device (IED). After treatment with olanzapine, both his psychosis and his stuttering showed significant improvement. We also discuss stuttering and review previous studies that have investigated antipsychotic use in stuttering.