Understanding Chronic Dysarthria: Causes, Symptoms, and Management

Sign In

All Posts Conditions Community About

Explore Over 11,000+ Conditions, Medications, and Symptoms.

Get a personalized feed by signing up for free.

All Conditions

Chronic Dysarthria

by Alike Medical Team ∙ Updated on June 13, 2023

Additional names

This group contains additional names: - Speech articulation disorder

General

Dysarthria is a speech disorder in which speech is not understood and sounds slurred, heavy, and strenuous. The cause of the disorder is damage to the brain areas or to the muscles that control the pronunciation organs - the lips, cheeks, tongue, palate, and jaw. The damage is caused as a result of a neurological or muscular disorder, such as stroke, brain tumor, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (known as "ALS"), certain medications, and more. In most cases, dysarthria does not go away, but there are ways to regain speech abilities to some extent.

27 people with Chronic Dysarthria

Learn from others who are experiencing Chronic Dysarthria.

Signs & symptoms

Speech difficulties may appear at different severity levels. Speech may sound slurred, monotone, mumbled, have an uneven rhythm or jerky. Additionaly, there may be drooling or Trouble chewing or swallowing. In most cases, the problem is only in speech and pronunciation, and the person knows what he wants to say and experiences frustration from not being understood.

Diagnosis

The appearance of new dysarthria requires urgent examination by a physician. Diagnosis of the cause of dysarthria includes a physical and neurological examination of the neurological and muscular functions. In addition, one or more of the following tests may be needed: - blood and urine tests. - Brain imaging tests (such as MRI or CT) - Spinal fluid examination (lumbar puncture) - nerve and muscle studies, like EEG (electroencephalography) or EMG (electromyography)

Treatment

Treatment of dysarthria consists of two components: - Treatment of the underlying disease responsible for dysarthria - Treatment of speech difficulties, using speech therapy. This treatment focuses on strengthening and improving control of the pronunciation organs, and improving speech intelligibility and sound quality.

Note

☝ We provide information on prescription and over-the-counter medicines, diagnosis, procedures and lab tests. This material is provided for educational purposes only and is not medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

National Institutes of Health ∙ World Health Organization ∙ MedlinePluse ∙ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

☝ All information has been reviewed by certified physicians from Alike

Latest Discussions

JohnyRobins

Struggling with Speech Articulation: Need Advice

Ragdolly66

Lost my best friend, looking for new connections

Sebby

'@Newtworthy I think that's **dyslexia**

Koru

Hi! I'm Koru, they/he. I struggle with bad...

Dionysus

Struggling with Gender Dysphoria

Alike Wisdom

Instantly get answers to medical questions with our AI, built from the collective wisdom of our community facing similar experiences