Characterizing drug-induced stuttering in electronic health records.

The study reviewed 40 suspected records and found 22 possible cases, but it had no comparison group and did not measure how often stuttering occurs in patients taking the same drugs without stuttering. Cases were found using a method built to identify developmental stuttering, so records without those keywords may have been missed, and the 22 cases should not be treated as the true number of cases in the EHR. Psychiatric records were largely unavailable, which likely undercounted cases involving antidepressants and antipsychotics. Documentation was often sparse: stuttering type, timing, therapeutic measures, and follow-up were not always recorded, so causality scores may be uncertain. Several cases involved more than one medication, including one case linked to hydrocodone and phenytoin, so the effect of any single drug cannot be separated. No speech-language pathology consultation or referral was observed, so the notes may not reflect specialist speech evaluation.

Do not read the 22 possible cases as proof that any drug causes stuttering. Some cases involved other medications, and one case was linked to hydrocodone and phenytoin, so the contribution of a single drug cannot be separated.