Stuttering and stammering affects many people in the world and can be very frustrating. Stammering is a vocal disability in which speech is continually disrupted by ticks and involuntary actions. There are many treatments available to help control the stutter, and which one to use depends on the severity of the disorder as well as the age of the patient.
Medication
Both children and adults can take anti-stuttering medications such as benzodiazepines, anti-convulsants, antipsychotics and a few others. No drugs currently have been approved as a complete cure, however, and many have been deemed unsuitable for stammering treatment.
Speech Therapy
Another treatment is fluency shaping therapy. This treatment trains the patient to use different techniques when speaking, like stretching out the speech and speaking softer. This is not a quick cure, but with time, the patient can use fluency shaping therapy to become stutter-free.
Future Cures
While there is no true cure for stammering or stuttering, the treatments available have helped patients free themselves from frustrating pauses and delayed speech. There is one drug now under review as a treatment for stammering. The drug pagoclone, an antixiolytic, was originally developed as an anti-anxiety medication but never made it through the final stages of commercialization. Recently, pagoclone studies have been resurrected, but this time as an anti-stammering drug.
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