Foreign Accent Syndrome presenting as Conversion Disorder: A rare presentation

Foreign accent syndrome (FAS) is a rare disorder in the production of speech with a change in articulation and prosody that is perceived by listeners to have a different accent, hence the name foreign accent syndrome. FAS incidents have been mostly reported secondary to traumatic brain injury or stroke affecting the speech producing regions of the brain. Very few reported cases of FAS have been associated with psychiatric conditions. We report a case of FAS with comorbid transient stuttering presenting as conversion disorder in a 45- year- old right handed monolingual female with an American English accent who presented to the emergency room with a British cockney or Australian accent. The onset of the syndrome occurred after the dissolution of her second marriage. Repeated comprehensive assessments including physical and neurological examinations, laboratory tests, neuroimaging, and electroencephalogram were all normal. Personality testing and two independent neuropsychological and psychiatric evaluations support a psychiatric etiology, namely FAS secondary to conversion disorder.  Journal of Nature and Science (JNSCI), 2(7):e197, 2016

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