A distinct variant of mixed dysarthria reflects parkinsonism and dystonia due to ephedrone abuse.

Abstract

A distinctive alteration of speech has been reported in patients suffering from ephedrone-induced parkinsonism. However, an objective assessment of dysarthria has not been performed in ephedrone users. We studied 28 young Caucasian men from Georgia with a previous history of ephedrone abuse and compared them to 25 age-matched healthy controls. Speech examination, brain MRI, and NNIPPS-Parkinson plus scale were performed in all patients. The accurate differential diagnosis of dysarthria subtypes was based on the quantitative acoustic analyses of 15 speech dimensions. We revealed a distinct variant of mixed dysarthria with a combination of hyperkinetic and hypokinetic components representing the altered motor programming of dystonia and bradykinesia in ephedrone-induced parkinsonism. According to acoustic analyses, all patients presented at least one affected speech dimension, whereas dysarthria was moderate in 43% and severe in 36% of patients. Further findings indicated relationships between motor subscores of dystonia and bradykinesia and speech components of loudness (r = -0.54, p < 0.01), articulation (r = 0.40, p < 0.05), and timing (r = -0.53, p < 0.01). In ephedrone-induced parkinsonism a prominent mixed hyperkinetic-hypokinetic dysarthria occurs that appears related to marked dystonia and bradykinesia and probably reflects manganese induced toxic and neurodegenerative damage to the globus pallidus internus and substantia nigra.

• Authors: Jan Rusz, Marika Megrelishvili, Cecilia Bonnet, Michael Okujava, Hana Brožová, Irine Khatiashvili, Madona Sekhniashvili, Marina Janelidze, Eduardo Tolosa, Evžen Růžička
• Journal: Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) (J Neural Transm (Vienna)) Vol. 121 Issue 6 Pg. 655-64 (Jun 2014) ISSN: 1435-1463 [Electronic] Austria
• PMID: 24445755 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)

Chemical References

• Antiparkinson Agents
• Propiophenones
• monomethylpropion

Topics

• Acoustics
• Adult
• Analysis of Variance
• Antiparkinson Agents (therapeutic use)
• Dysarthria (etiology)
• Dystonia (etiology)
• Humans
• Magnetic Resonance Imaging
• Male
• Mental Status Schedule
• Middle Aged
• Parkinsonian Disorders (drug therapy, etiology)
• Propiophenones (adverse effects)
• Severity of Illness Index
• Statistics as Topic
• Substance-Related Disorders (complications)