Understanding, Recognizing, and Managing Functional Speech Disorders: Current Thinking Illustrated With a Case Series.

This case series demonstrates that FSDs can present with a variety of manifestations including dysfluencies, articulation errors, dysphonia, rate and prosodic abnormalities, and combinations of disruptions in speech subsystems. FSDs may present in the context of known recent or remote physical or psychosocial trauma or, as in many cases, in the absence of an identifiable triggering event. FSDs are recognizable by positive clinical features and should not be considered a diagnosis of exclusion. With appropriate identification, counseling, and treatment, FSDs may resolve, sometimes rapidly; in some cases, treatment may be prolonged or ineffective.