Functional Dysphonia

Results of Voice Therapy

Abstract

Voice therapy was given to 51 patients with functional dysphonia between 1981 and 1991. Twenty two patients dropped out before voice therapy was completed. Twenty two of 29 patients who completed the voice therapy obtained improvement in voice and /or phonation. Three cases were psychogenic and improved considerably with therapy. Four cases were mutational. The voice was normalized in three, but unchanged in one. Seven were hypofunctional, nine hyperfunctional, four had a gap in the posterior glottis during phonation and two had normal behavior of the vocal fold during phonation. The rate of improvement was 100% for hypofunctional,67% for hyperfunctional dysphonia,25% for dysphonia with posterior gap and 100% for those with normal vocal fold behavior. Voice therapy was not sufficiently effective in hyperfunctional dysphonia and dysphonia with posterior glottic gap.