Comment · Fri, June 26, 2015 · Ceretropic
Nootropics to help with stuttering?
Original post in this thread
ragadole · 18 points
I've been stuttering more or less all my life. Nothing too severe, but still pretty noticeable (although more to me than to other people, or so it seems at least). I think my stutter makes me less social and more anxious than I would be if I had normal speech.
Anyways, I'm just curious if there are any other stutterers on here who have found success in the use of nootropics. I've tried quite a few nootropics so far but haven't found any to be particularly helpful when it comes to reducing stuttering. I thought the racetams would be helpful but I cant say I've noticed any significant improvements while taking various racetams.
Obviously, stuttering is not the sole reason for my nootropics usage, but it's still something that I'd like to see if I can improve a little.
What they were answering
Direct reply to the original post — see the thread post above.
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · Ceretropic
Levetiracetam
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12391373
>After 12 weeks of levetiracetam therapy, we observed a decrease in seizure frequency, as well as a complete disappearance of stuttering. A recent neuropsychological follow-up showed improved results for the verbal fluency test, which assesses the speed of verbal oral production and is not a task of speech-motor dysfluency. The Category Fluency Test, which measures the quantity of words belonging to four specific semantic categories, showed normal results. The other cognitive results remained unchanged. Polygraph studies allowed us to rule out action palatal and oropharyngeal myoclonus 4 as the cause of stuttering.
Discussion.
The main causes of stuttering, which has been defined as associated with “emotional pain and social stigma,”5 are actually unknown. Nonetheless, some authors 6 observed changes in the perisylvian area of stutters’ brains that could conceivably cause abnormalities in stuttering (speech) motor output. Indeed, stutterers seem to initiate the motor program before the articulatory code is prepared. 6
Here, we provide evidence of the efficacy of levetiracetam on developmental stuttering. Although there is no clear explanation for levetiracetam efficacy, it is reasonable to assume that this antiepileptic medication might influence the metabolism of the language area, increasing verbal fluency, as already suggested for piracetam. Indeed piracetam improved the recovery of various language functions in patients with poststroke aphasia, and this effect was accompanied by a significant increase of task-related flow activation in the eloquent areas of the left hemisphere.