Speech Rehabilitation in Wilson’s Disease: A Case Study

Wilson’s disease is a rare hereditary disorder passed down in the autosomal recessive way. This disorder involves the speech parts of the brain leading to dysarthria, which impairs all of the five speech systems, i.e. the respiratory, phonation, articulation, resonance, and prosody. The patient studied in this research was a 28-year-old woman with Wilson’s disease, who visited Rofaydeh Rehabilitation Hospital in Tehran City with complaints about severe speech disorders. Based on the clinical and paraclinical examinations the patient was diagnosed with a decrease in the maximum phonation time (MPT) of 2 to 3 seconds, reduced intelligibility and articulation impairment. The patient underwent medicinal, behavioral, and rehabilitation (include speech therapy) treatments. Following a continuous two-year follow-up rehabilitation, a considerable improvement in the speech was observed as an increase in intelligibility (up to 5% of the words), the consistency between respiration and speech and an increase in verbal and nonverbal communications.