Reactions 728 - 21 Nov 1998

Theophylline

Stuttering in an elderly patient: case reportA 73-year-old man began to stutter 1 month after he began

theophylline 400mg twice daily to treat chronic obstructivelung disease secondary to pneumoconiosis; his othermedications at the time included corticosteroids andranitidine.

The man’s blood concentration of theophylline was 10–15mg/ml, within the therapeutic range, and there were noneurological or motor system abnormalities. Theophylline wasdiscontinued and his stuttering improved significantly over thenext 48 hours.

Two weeks later, the patient was rechallenged withtheophylline at the same dosage. After a few days of treatment,he again started to stutter. Theophylline therapy was stoppedand the man’s stuttering resolved, with no further sequelae.

Author comment: ‘This theophylline discontinuation andreintroduction challenge strongly implicates theophylline as theprincipal precipitating factor of the speech disorder in thispatient, which is characterised as an intense tonic-clonicstuttering without any extrapyramidal components.’Gerard J-M, et al. Theophylline-induced stuttering. Movement Disorders 13:847-848, Sep 1998 - Belgium 800720073

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Reactions 21 Nov 1998 No. 7280114-9954/10/0728-0001/$14.95 Adis © 2010 Springer International Publishing AG. All rights reserved