Spondylitis Association of America Forums General Discussion General Message Board for Ankylosing Spondylitis and Related Diseases Halted Speech

Has anyone ever experienced 'halted speech' while on Humira or other TNF-A blockers? In the past 8 weeks or so I've gone from having trouble 'finding the right word' to having stutters - and so i've been taken off Humira for at least 4-6 weeks to see if this symptom goes away. I've also had and MRI and will be seeing a neurologist ...

I have it...I call it brain fog but I thought it was from my topamax.

I have it, too. I had it even on the Enbrel. It is not severe enough for me to consider stopping my Humira.

I have never heard of that happening with Humira, but "brain fog" and fatigue are themselves something that many with AS complain about, it seems. I am not sure if anyone really understands what is really going on in cases of "brain fog" or what the dimensions are... I have seen no medical papers that speak of it but only hear a lot of patients' anecdotes here. Halted speech or stuttering sounds more serious a neurological condition than just a cloudy brain or short-term memory lapse. But who knows? I would look again carefully at ALL medicines you are taking to see if it falls into any of the listed side effects, no matter how rare. Enbrel can cause demyelination and MS.

They have stripped me from Humira and Lexapro for the next while - waiting to see neurologist tomorrow. Halting is better after only a few days off humira, but it is still there.

Latest - 3 MRIs later (Brain - Low Res, Brain - High Res, Brian - HighRes with Contrast dye and C-SPINE) - they found "spots" near the brain stem in the speech center. No more TNF blockers for me. Next steps are a spinal tap to make sure i don't have some opportunistic infection in my spinal fluid. Counting one day at a time.

BTW: they have to report to the drug company (who in sequence has to report to the FDA) that they have a patient with adverse reactions to the TNF. Apparently .01% of people get this. The good news - the speech problem is slowly improving - but now i'm 4 weeks with no TNF blocker - and wondering what life is going to be like. We have other treatment options but they are holding back for a while longer.

I am sorry to hear about this unusual complication and hope you will keep us informed about what they find out. There do seem to be a number of rare (hopefully) side-effects for the TNF drugs, but even 0.01% would probably be more than a few people. I remember one woman here recently writing that she became paralyzed. If anyone else here gets this speech dysfunction, I would have the brain checked immediately.

Not for sure what your condition is all about. I do know that a couple of months ago I had started having trouble remembering words or people's names, even my own family and friends. It is frustrating. The nurse did tell me that it could be part of the fibromayagia, which I also have as well as the AS.

My rheumatologist said he has had only 2 patients (not counting me) since 1998 with this side-effect. FWIW: He's one of the recommended Dr's on this site, and very popular.