교통사고 이후 발증한 후천적 말더듬 치료 사례 보고

A Case Study of Acquired Stuttering after a Car Accident

This study reports the onset of stuttering after a car accident and discusses the nature of acquired stuttering. A 34-year-old man showed depression and moderate stuttering after a car accident but had no other neurological or cognitive problems. Six months later he manifested little stuttering in his speech but showed unnatural prosody. Another five months later his speech became fluent again and was relatively natural with a certain Korean provincial accent. This case indicates that stuttering after a car accident may result from a psychological problem rather than a neurological problem for the following reasons. First, he showed no abnormal pattern on neurological examination (no abnormalities in his brain MRI and PET). Second, a car accident can bring about emotional trauma, and the car accident was temporally related to the onset of his stuttering. Third, he showed accompanying psychiatric/psychological problems. Fourth, his coping strategy was unusual. Finally, the stuttering symptom itself was resolved in the early stages following the accident.