Multidisciplinary Assessment and Diagnosis of Conversion Disorder in a Patient with Foreign Accent Syndrome

Abstract

Abstract. Multiple reports have described patients with disordered articulation and prosody, often following acute aphasia, dysarthria, or apraxia of speech, which results in the perception by listeners of a foreign-like accent. These features led to the term foreign accent syndrome (FAS), a speech disorder with perceptual features that suggest an indistinct, non-native speaking accent. Also correctly known as psuedoforeign accent, the speech does not typically match a specific foreign accent, but is rather a constellation of speech features that result in the perception of a foreign accent by listeners. The primary etiologies of FAS are cerebrovascular accidents or traumatic brain injuries which affect cortical and subcortical regions critical to expressive speech and language production. Far fewer cases of FAS associated with psychiatric conditions have been reported. We will present the clinical history, neurological examination, neuropsychological assessment, cognitive-behavioral and biofeedback assessments, and motor speech examination of a patient with FAS without a known vascular, traumatic, or infectious precipitant. Repeated multidisciplinary examinations of this patient provided convergent evidence in support of FAS secondary to conversion disorder. We discuss these findings and their implications for evaluation and treatment of rare neurological and psychiatric conditions.

Foreign Accent Syndrome Secondary to Medication Withdrawal: A Case Report

“…10,[18][19][20] Due to the variety of etiologies and lack of common features, it has been suggested that FAS is not the result of any single underlying mechanism. 7 A few cases of FAS have been reported in the literature secondary to psychogenic, rather than neurogenic causes.…”

Foreign Accent syndrome: neurolinguistics aspects in a case report

“…Há um relato de estudo de caso em que o sujeito apresenta um quadro de sotaque estrangeiro secundário a um transtorno de conversão 18 . Esse transtorno é definido como uma condição médica em que há a presença de sintomas ou déficits afetando a função motora ou sensorial voluntária, que sugerem uma condição neurológica ou outra condição médica geral, mas sem causas neurológicas.…”

Revisión sistemática en el Síndrome del Acento Extranjero: intervención y terapia del lenguaje.

“…En contraposición, no pudo certificarse la validez del programa de tratamiento conductual dirigido a los errores en sonidos de voz (Jones et al, 2011), por falta de sesiones, consecuencia de la petición de alta voluntaria del paciente durante el tratamiento. …”

“…Las principales etiologías que se le atribuyen al SAE, son accidentes cerebrovasculares o lesiones cerebrales traumáticas que afectan a regiones significativas en la producción del habla y del lenguaje expresivo (Jones, Story, Collins, Dejoy y Edwards, 2011). A pesar de que algunos autores como Coleman y Gurd (2006) sopesaron un origen neurogénico del SAE, a expensas de futuros estudios concluyentes, Keulen et al (2016) consideran una variante del SAE como psicógena.…”