[Is stuttering a functional dystonia?]

For some years the dystonias have been the subject of major studies and, as far as the generalised dystonias are concerned, of major therapeutic advances. The opposite is true of the so-called focal or functional dystonias, which include conditions such as Meige's syndrome, spasmodic torticollis, writer's cramp, dystonias using instruments especially in musicians, and spasmodic dysphonia. For the last group, the term functional dysphonia would seems to us to be more appropriate. It would appear that what is involved is a disorder not of a muscle group, but rather of a function. Consequently stuttering can, in our opinion, be legitimately considered as a dystonia affecting the articulation of speech, within the global context of a new neurological grouping which could be called 'dysfunctional neurology'.