Relationship of unhelpful thoughts and beliefs about stuttering with anxiety and depression in Persian-speaking adults who stutter

Stuttering is a disruption in the fluency of speech that affects various aspects of human communication. Unhelpful thoughts and beliefs about stuttering are linked to the cognitive aspect of anxiety. Such beliefs can cause or exacerbate social anxiety in people who stutter. Early detection and treatment of such thoughts and beliefs may reduce the severity of social anxiety. The purpose of this study was to investigate the frequency of unhelpful thoughts and beliefs about stuttering and their correlation with anxiety and depression.

52 adults who stuttered were asked to complete the Unhelpful Thoughts and Beliefs about Stuttering (UTBAS), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) questionnaires and the results were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Spearman correlation test.

Unhelpful thoughts and beliefs (such as feeling an inner compulsion to control stuttering, fearing that stuttering may occur at any moment and assuming that the others will attend to stuttering) was found with varying degrees in all people who stutter. These thought correlated positively and significantly with anxiety (r = 0.55, P < 0.01) and depression (r = 0.46, P < 0.01).

There is a relationship between unhelpful thoughts and beliefs and the signs of anxiety and depression. Also the positive correlations between these behaviors indicate the importance of the attention to early signs of these thoughts and early treatment of mental health disorders in people who stutter.