FLUENCY CHANGES IN PERSONS WHO STUTTER FOLLOWING A DOUBLE-BLIND TRIALOF CLOMIPRAMINE AND DESIPRAMINE

This study compared fluency changes in adult developmental stuttering speakers treated with two tricyclic antidepressants, clomipramine and desipramine. Clomipramine is primarily a serotonergic reuptake inhibit or, and desipramine, primarily a noradrenergic reuptake inhibitor. Six teen subjects who stuttered participated in a single-blind placebo, do uble-blind active drug crossover study lasting 12 weeks. Speech rate a nd percent fluency did not significantly improve in placebo compared t o baseline. Speech rate significantly increased while repeating, readi ng or constructing sentences, and during a telephone conversation, but no significant changes in percent fluency were found under clomiprami ne compared to placebo. Speech rate during a telephone conversation an d percent fluency while speaking in front of an audience of four to se ven listeners significantly increased under clomipramine compared to d esipramine. No significant improvements in percent fluency or speech r ate were found for any speaking task under desipramine compared to pla cebo. Twelve of 16 subjects reported improved fluency compared to base line using clomipramine, whereas 6 reported improvement using desipram ine. Because more evidence of improvement was found under clomipramine compared to desipramine, fluency improvement may be related to clomip ramine's greater selectivity for serotonergic reuptake inhibition.