Abstract
Three cases of tongue thrust in speech were reported. The patients were a 33 year-old male public service worker, a 26 year-old office girl, and a 56 year-old widow who had no family history of neurological nor mental iliness. They all had been mentally and physically healthy people, and socially well-adjusted. Although they had to talk tb many people in their social life, they were well-adjusted and had no feeling of anxiety in the situation before the onset of the symptom. Two of them visited our clinic 6 months after the onset and one patient came to us 3 yaps after the onset. The common symptom amongst the 3 patients was as follows : the tongue was protruded out of the mouth while speaking but showed normal movement in swallowing, whereas it was in the normal position at rest. We found no neurological disorder on physical examinations. The patients showed slightly obsessive-compulsive tendencies, but no other neurotic sigrl nor symptom. They denied preceding traumatic events in relation to the onset. We maintained that the symptom was functional in nature, and treated two of them with autogenic training and the remaining one with negative training. The synmptom disappeared in response to these approaches in all cases. Thus the results have confirmed our initial diagnosis.
