Stuttering (Continued) - Salem-News.Com

The movie The King’s Speech regarding stuttering has created much interest and I decided to throw in my two bits worth of my own experience which I posted as Stuttering, Pain and Battle Fatigue. In doing my research, I found that about 3,000,000 people stutter including 1% of adults. This must be a heavy burden to drag around.

To check on the relevance of my own experience I searched Stuttering and discovered about 5690 articles about the subject on Google. My article was ranked 1,2,3,4, and 5 with 15 total references for Stuttering, by itself, it was not included in the 5690 articles. I did get both negative and positive responses (Cést la vie). I even had at least about 62 articles affirming my observation that Battle Fatigue (?) or severe pain caused severe stuttering and/or muteness.

One observation I did make about stuttering which included therapy for the condition included literally hundreds of different types of therapy including “do it yourself” programs.

One respondent, Martin F. Schwartz, Ph.D, Executive Director, The National Center for Stuttering and Research, Professor of Speech Pathology (retired), NYU School of Medicine, IRPS, advised me that in research he had done and published in 1954 indicated that Thiamine or Vitamin B-1 would “cure” stuttering in about 30% of sufferers. Vitamin B-1 is used primarily to prevent Beriberi which causes severe edema. Exactly how this would effect the brain is not clear but good salesmanship for placebos or “sugar pills” works for many conditions if the patient/victim believes in it.

For those interested, search Stuttering and you will find what I am writing about. I believe the same goes for drugs for Epilepsy, anxiety and depression. If any of these hundreds of suggested therapies worked well there would NOT be hundreds of suggested/advertised therapies.

I have the greatest empathy for stutterers. When I had severe pain induced stuttering it just drove me to general distraction. Escaping that tongue-tied blockage was extremely distressing as any stutterer will appreciate.

I think I found one article which indicated Cannabis/Marijuana worked well. This is not surprising to me as a Cannabis/Marijuana doctor. It does work for a whole variety of brain disorders and because functional speech starts in the brain, it should have a beneficial effect.

Before any of that, Phil Leveque was a Combat Infantryman in the U.S. Army in WWII. He suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder more than 60 years after the war, and specialized in treating Veterans with PTSD during his years as a doctor in Molalla, Oregon. Do you have a question, comment or story to share with Dr. Leveque?
Email him: ASK DR. LEVEQUE

More information on the history of Dr. Leveque can be found in his book, General Patton's Dogface Soldier of WWII about his own experiences "from a foxhole". Order the book by mail by following this link: DOGFACE SOLDIER OF WWII If you are a World War II history buff, you don't want to miss it.

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NationalStutteringAssociation February 15, 2011 12:02 pm (Pacific time)

Help for Children and Adults Who Stutter: For 35 years the National Stuttering Association (NSA), which is the largest self-help non-profit organization for people who stutter in the country, has connected kids and adults who stutter to other kids and adults who stutter through local chapter meetings, workshops, on-line support groups and annual conferences in which over 600 people who stutter attend each year! They also offer tons of great brochures, pamphlets and other reference tools for both people who stutter and professionals. To learn more, pls contact them at: www.westutter.org, info@westutter.org or 1-800-937-8888

Bud Bultman February 14, 2011 3:17 am (Pacific time)

Stuttering is genetic in our family. Several uncles had varying degrees and stuttered in slightly different ways. One got a referral to a speech therapist who used "Self Therapy for the Stutter" by the Stuttering Foundation of America in her sessions. He bought a copy to send home to his brothers. He improved more than his brothers did, but all of them went on to have successful lives with acceptance of their stuttering.

Luke Easter February 9, 2011 5:54 am (Pacific time)

“Correlation Technique” Unify something easy with a difficult task. A 12 year old I knew stuttered very badly, especially when reading. Asking what he loved to do more than anything else he replied, “basketball.” So, I had him put on an exhibition. Sure enough that ball in his hand was like a brush in the hand of Rembrandt. I had him hold a basketball in one hand, a book in the other. Telling him, “You have as much control over the ball in your right hand as the book in your left hand. When you are reading think of how smooth you dribble and do the same with your words. Deliberate, in control, strong, assured. As there are two parts to basketball, offense and defense, there two parts to reading. The actual reading itself which is your offense and the retention of what you’ve read, your defense.” He put the ball down and slowly but surely he began to read w/o stammering. After three paragraphs I took the book from him and said, “Great offense, now for your defense. Explain to me what you just read.” A little slower but he did it. Well, fast forward and by summer’s end he was reading/speaking fine. He put just as much time in the book as he did in the ball. Stuttering is not a death sentence. It is possible to get out on parole. It just takes work.

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