[Psychological factors in spasmodic dysphonia].

BACKGROUND

Spastic dysphonia has usually been thought as a form of psychogenic dysphonia. A considerable number of authors now feel that this voice disorder is caused by neurological factors.

PATIENTS

This study evaluates several psychological factors in 18 patients (9 males, 9 females; mean age: 52.6 years) who had been phoniatrically diagnosed as suffering from adductor spasmodic dysphonia.

RESULTS

In standardized psychometric tests, clinical performance of the patients as a group did not deviate from published test norms with respect to emotional instability, hypochondriasis, somatization, or depression. Many patients had been psychosocially stressed to a mild to moderate degree by life events in the two-year period prior to onset of spasmodic dysphonia. These events included severe illness of their own or of near relatives, or death in the family. The personality structure of nearly half of the patients showed a tendency toward increased achievement orientation and certain trait anxieties.

CONCLUSIONS

In summary, spasmodic dysphonia remains a phonation disorder of uncertain nosologic classification. It is probable that the disorder is the result of a combination of largely unknown neurological and psychosocial factors.