INTRODUCTION

This blog is dedicated  to exploring stuttering and its connection to both the mind and the body.  Future posts will provide information about the current understanding of the causes of stuttering, e the role of the brain in stuttering, as well as the role of the mind.  The mind is distinguished from the brain in that the brain is the physical mass that exists in your skull, while the mind is a manifestation of the brain (e.g., consciousness and self-awareness).  In addition, future posts will deal with the role of drugs in treating stuttering, drug trials, and their interpretation.

Many of the readers of this blog had high hopes for the recent pagoclone drug trials, but recently the pharmaceutical company, Indevus, announced the termination of these trials.  There could be many reasons for this termination, one of which is that the drug did not perform statistically better than a placebo (i.e., a sugar pill).  Another possibility is that the drug did not live up to other "success criteria" set up for it.  For example, a user of the drug may develop a tolerance for a given dosage (this is common for tranquilizers) and that dosage may subsequently become ineffective for improving fluency.

At any rate, a number of test subjects in the pagoclone trials have reported extended fluency improvements  while on pagaclone and decreased fluency while on the placebos.  So we can await future announcements from the drug company as to the reasons that the trials have stopped.

So tune in for future posts on this blog.  I'm sure that you will find them to be educational and informative.