What is dysarthria?
Dysarthria occurs when the muscles you use for speech are weak or you have difficulty controlling them.
Dysarthria often causes slurred or slow speech that can be difficult to understand.
Common causes of dysarthria include nervous system disorders and conditions that cause facial paralysis or tongue or throat muscle weakness.
Certain medications also can cause dysarthria.
Treating the underlying cause of your dysarthria may improve your speech. You may also need speech therapy. For dysarthria caused by prescription medications, changing or discontinuing the medications may help.
Symptoms
Signs and symptoms of dysarthria vary, depending on the underlying cause and the type of dysarthria.
They may include:
- Slurred speech
- Slow speech
- Inability to speak louder than a whisper or speaking too loudly
- Rapid speech that is difficult to understand
- Nasal, raspy or strained voice
- Uneven or abnormal speech rhythm
- Uneven speech volume
- Monotone speech
- Difficulty moving your tongue or facial muscles
Conditions that may lead to dysarthria include:
- Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease)
- Brain injury
- Brain tumor
- Cerebral palsy
- Guillain-Barre syndrome
- Head injury
- Lyme disease
- Multiple sclerosis
- Muscular dystrophy
- Parkinson's disease
- Stroke
- Wilson's disease
Complications
Because of the communication problems, dysarthria increases the risk of the depression and it affects relationships.
Source:
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/dysarthria/symptoms-
causes/syc-20371994
