Understanding and Diagnosing Spasmodic Dysphonia

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Spasmodic Dysphonia (SD) is commonly misdiagnosed due to its similarity’s to other voice disorders. Numerous people go to the doctor because of this reason thinking they might have a severe cold or something in that nature. Patients with SD start out with either an immediate or slow onset of trouble speaking, interruptions of breathy pauses in their voice during production of specific sounds or words. It is also reported that they feel like it takes a lot more time and effort to speak than normal causing their voice to sound breathy, tense, or even low and quiet like a whisper. Symptoms can vary like any other disorder depending on the severity and how long they have been present. SD can come in three different types causing several symptoms that are especially hard to specifically diagnose requiring specialist to rule out other disorders before being able to diagnose SD. To be diagnosed with SD the patient must have a detailed medical history, phonatory symptoms, and an exam using an endoscope to look at the larynx musculature. …show more content…

Normally the voice will sound weakened and breathy because air is escaping from in-between the folds from the lungs while the client is talking. “Voice sounds normal when the client is shouting, singing, laughing, and crying” (Mathew, 2014). Symptoms can include a breathy sounding interruptions in the voice causing the clients to seem like they are whispering. Abductor Spasmodic Dysphonia is less common than adductor spasmodic dysphonia however, it is still more frequent than mixed spasmodic dysphonia.
Mixed Spasmodic Dysphonia is an extremely rare form of SD occurring when different muscles have spasms causing the vocal folds too close and open. Like the name recommends both abductor and adductor symptoms are apparent in mixed spasmodic

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