Neurológia pre prax 5/2022

Acquired functional speech and voice disorders

Acquired functional speech disorders (formerly known as psychogenic speech disorders, psychosomatic, conversion, non-organic voice disorders) are an individual subtype of functional neurological disorders, that include a broad scale of voice disorders, that are not understood well enough and therefore are poorly diagnosed in clinical practice or are often misdiagnosed. Acquired functional speech and voice disorders do not arise as a result of structural organic or neurological changes, but it is assumed that biopsychosocial factors may be behind their origin. In the clinical picture problems of these patients may occur in isolation or co-morbidity with other functional neurological symptoms. They manifest themselves in different ways, have variable symptoms, and affect any aspect of speech production and phonation. Differential diagnosis and subsequent therapy can therefore be challenging. The aim of this review is to provide a basic summary of the latest knowledge regarding acquired functional speech and voice disorders useful for the future direction of clinical research and practice.

Keywords: functional neurological disorder, functional speech disorder, functional voice disorder, functional stuttering, functional disorders of articulation, functional disorders of prosody