Acquired stuttering

Working from a case of degeneration of the nervous system accompanied by stutterlike repetitions, this article raises the question whether patients should be said to have acquired stuttering when they evidence only one of the typical symptoms of the syndrome. On the other hand, it is shown that when acquired stuttering is polysymptomatic, it can hardly be distinguished from developmental stuttering on the basis of the patient's verbal behavior. This may have important medicolegal implications. When acquired stuttering occurs in the context of aphasia, both affections appear to be relatively independent of each other. Specifically, there seems to be no causal relationship between them.