Comorbid Psychiatric Symptoms in Childhood Stutterers: An Egyptian Sample

Abstract

Introduction: Stuttering is a fluency disorder in which an individual can produce speech effortlessly and automatically and it is seriously compromised. Although the spontaneous recovery rate is high in children, stuttering will become an intractable problem for some of them. In Egypt, it occurs at the Prevalence of 0.290.55%. Stuttering is one of the speech disorders which is characterized by developmental histories often marked by bullying, poor peer relationships, and many negative social interactions. Therefore, it is clear that stuttering carries a significant risk of comorbid psychiatric symptoms; these psychiatric symptoms appear in children and persist into adulthood. The theories behind stuttering and mental health disorders are complex. Aim: The current study aimed to determine comorbid psychiatric symptoms in stutterers. Patients and Methods: A cross-sectional study was done on fortyseven stutterers. They were classified into three groups: children group: their age ranged 6 9.7 years (7.4 ± 1.3), preadolescents group: their age ranged 10 11.8 years (10.6 ± 0.6) and adolescents group: their age ranged 13.117.2 years (15.1 ± 1.5), who were diagnosed with stuttering. Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and Arabic Stuttering Severity Instrument (ASSI) were applied to all of them. Results: Comorbid psychiatric symptoms were associated with stuttering. It was found that psychiatric co-morbidities aggravated the stuttering severity. These psychiatric symptoms appeared in children, preadolescents and became more prominent in adolescents. Conclusion: The current study demonstrated stuttering as a heterogeneous group of disorders. Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) is mandatory for stutterers in addition to the ordinary management program, which includes speech assessment and intervention. On the other hand, CBT should be used as a prophylactic therapy in stutterers without comorbid psychiatric symptoms.