Speech changes with PD

[William Palmer]

My speech changes in the morning. An hour or two after I take my carbi-levo pill (8:00), I have trouble saying multi-syllabic words. This wears off by 11:30. Then I speak normally again. For this reason, I try not to make any doctor appointments or go anywhere in the morning.

[Kim]

The first thing I noticed about my speech was my voice would crack—I am a teacher so I read out loud a lot and my voice would crack with inflection. I also noticed that I was unable to sing without cracking. Once I was diagnosed (took 4 years) and began meds this got better. I talk pretty loudly at school but at home my husband will often ask me to repeat myself because he can’t hear me. I am 58 btw but Parkinson’s was on my radar back in 2016. I had also been trying for years before this to figure out why I could not taste or smell anymore.

[Toni Shapiro]

Hello, Yes my speech has changed, particularly when I am anxious and or due for my meds.  I do experience some social anxiety and  I am dealing with that but I stutter, slur, can’t find words to complete my thoughts, can’t articulate and usually just give up trying to finish a conversation and just stop talking.  At other times I can carry on a conversation normally. Although I have many of the lesser known PD symptoms along with the usual, unlike many my voice has not  softened so my speech issues are quite noticeable.  My husband is very hard of hearing so I always have to raise my voice which often hurts my throat.  Maybe that’s why my voice is still strong.

[Clive Varejes]

Thanks Toni and William, appreciate the feedback.

As I said I was not aware of the slurring, but I have asked that when I do they tell me about it so I can understand what I am doing and when.

I haven’t noticed any ‘softening’ and my wife continually tells me to stop shouting at her, and I apologize profusely but explain thats part of the DP progress…., but maybe it is intentional ……… ok, ok just joking…………..

 

 

 

[fakhiuddin ahmed]

My wife was diagnosed 25 yrs ago, when she was 55yrs old, but became symptomatic about 5 yrs ago. DBS took care of tremors and dyskinesia, but her symptoms, of sleepiness, cognition changes, slurred speech, fatigue, depression, kyphosis, remain problematic. Like so many, I have to consider that these are due to disease progression and or drugs related When she is in her ‘on’ period her speech is normal but it was never loud ‘on’ or ‘off’ periods.