Relief of acquired stuttering associated with Parkinson's disease by unilateral left subthalamic brain stimulation.

Purpose: In this article, the authors report a case of acquired stuttering associated with Parkinson's disease (PD) that was responsive to unilateral subthalamic nucleus deep-brain stimulation (STN DBS) in the language-dominant hemisphere.

Method: A single-subject, masked, multiple baseline design was used to evaluate the effects of unilateral left STN DBS on stuttering associated with PD. The patient underwent 3 formal speech assessments of spontaneous speech and the reading of passages with DBS off and on.