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Definition
By Mayo Clinic staffDysarthria is a condition in which you have difficulty controlling or coordinating the muscles you use when you speak, or weakness of those muscles. Dysarthria often is characterized by slurred or slow speech that can be difficult to understand.
Common causes of dysarthria include nervous system (neurological) disorders such as stroke, brain injury, brain tumors, and conditions that cause facial paralysis or tongue or throat muscle weakness. Dysarthria may also be caused by certain medications.
Dysarthria treatment is directed at treating the underlying cause of your condition when possible, which may improve your speech. You may have speech therapy, which often helps people with dysarthria improve their speech. If dysarthria is caused by prescription medications, changing or discontinuing your medications may help.
- Dysarthria. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. http://www.asha.org/public/speech/disorders/dysarthria/. Accessed Feb. 27, 2012.
- Goetz CG. Textbook of Clinical Neurology. 3rd ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders Elsevier; 2007:79.
- Dysarthria: Causes and number. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. http://www.asha.org/public/speech/disorders/DysarthriaCauses.htm. Accessed Feb. 27, 2012.
- Treatment efficacy summary — Dysarthria (neurological motor speech impairment). American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. http://www.asha.org/public/EfficacySummaries/. Accessed Feb. 27, 2012.
- Cohen SM, et al. Palliative treatment of dysphonia and dysarthria. Otolaryngologic Clinics of North America. 2009;42:107.
- Ropper AH, et al. Adams & Victor's Principles of Neurology. 9th ed. New York, N.Y.: The McGraw-Hill Companies; 2009. http://www.accessmedicine.com/resourceTOC.aspx?resourceID=54. Accessed Feb. 28, 2012.
- Neurological diagnostic tests and procedures. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/misc/diagnostic_tests.htm. Accessed Feb. 28, 2012.
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