Active clinical trials for "Voice Disorders"

The first objective of this research project is to compare the occurrence and frequency of symptoms and/or disorders related to autonomic dysfunction in patients with functional dysphonia with gender- and age-matched vocally healthy controls, using a case-control study. The second objective is to compare the effects of a novel therapy based on autonomic nervous system regulation (i.e., ANS therapy: heart rate variability biofeedback), for functional dysphonia versus coventional voice therapy (CVT) alone or in combination with ANS regulation therapy (i.e., ANS therapy + CVT), using a longitudinal randomized controlled trial (RCT).

The purpose of this study is to pilot test a version of the intervention that has been tailored for participants with dysphonia. The study seeks to determine if the adapted intervention: a) increases perceived control over voice-related stressors and b) decreases stress and distress resulting from voice problems. The study will also explore the usability and acceptability of the program. The goal is to help people with voice problems achieve better voice and quality of life outcomes.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, telepractice has grown rapidly. To date, synchronous telepractice (i.e., in real-time videoconferencing) has been the focus of most research with asynchronous telepractice (i.e. information stored and accessed later) being used minimally only to record synchronous encounters. Descriptions of voice therapy concepts are minimally available in the literature with no standard reporting framework and no clinical efficacy or effectiveness data. Thus, the proposed study will address these barriers. First, an asynchronous method will be developed that will impact both in-person and telepractice services by offering repeated learning opportunities in the client's environment. The method includes ecological momentary intervention (EMI) through a daily voice therapy practice app, server, and web portal that is flexible in its programming to meet the needs of the client, offers performance feedback, and charts results over time. Second, voice therapy concepts will be tested improving our knowledge about such concepts that facilitate successful client-centered outcomes for both prevention and treatment of voice problems. The participants in the study will be teachers who have a high prevalence of voice problems, impact the healthcare system when treatment is needed, and negatively affect students' learning abilities in the classroom when communicating with a voice problem. Third, the Rehabilitation Treatment Specification System (RTSS) framework will be used to describe the voice therapy concepts. The concepts include: training multiple voices to meet all the clients' vocal needs, defining voice qualities by the anatomy and physiology of the voice production system, generalizing voice targets into hierarchical speech tasks, and using "new" vs "other/old" voice to help the client become their own clinician. Vocally healthy student teachers and professional teachers with voice complaints will be randomized into one of four voice therapy conditions delivered via telepractice. Both groups of teachers are needed to assess the concepts for prevention and treatment. Condition 2, which fully represents the proposed voice therapy concepts, will be superior to the other three conditions, which do not fully represent the concepts, by demonstrating a greater decrease in client-reported primary outcome measures of the Voice Handicap Index-10 and factor 1 and 2 of the Vocal Fatigue Index. Secondary outcomes of acoustic measures, Borg Category Ratio-10 scales for vocal and mental effort, and voice therapy satisfaction surveys will also be investigated. The results will be useful at a practical level by advancing asynchronous telepractice and by improving efficacy of voice therapy concepts. In addition, the results will lay the groundwork for future studies involving development of EMI platforms in other areas of speech-language pathology and testing additional voice therapy concepts that facilitate successful client-centered outcomes.

One of the greatest hurdles in the transition of transgender persons is that voice, speech and communication are not congruent with the desired gender. Since hormone treatment does not affect the voice in male-to-female transgender persons (trans women), speech therapy is the treatment of choice to develop a more feminine communication. Speech therapy must focus on aspects of communication that play an important role in listener perceptions of the speakers gender. Results of a systematic review and meta-analysis showed that those aspects are primarily fundamental frequency of the voice and resonance. However, effectiveness studies of speech interventions in transwomen are extremely limited and show methodological limitations. The purpose of this project is to investigate the short-term and longterm impact of speech exercises for pitch and resonance on (a) acoustic voice characteristics, (b) listener perceptions of femininity using a visual analogue scale and binary gender identification (male versus female voice), and (c) self-perception and psychosocial functioning in trans women using a randomized sham-controlled trial and cross-over design.

Vocal hyperfunction (VH) is the most commonly treated class of voice disorders by speech-language pathologists and voice therapy is the primary curative treatment. Patients and clinicians report that generalizing improved voicing into daily life is the most significant barrier to successful therapy. We will test if extending biofeedback into the patient's daily life using ambulatory voice monitoring will significantly improve generalization during therapy and if individual patient factors, like how easily they can modify their voice and engagement during therapy, moderate the effects of the biofeedback.

Singers are over-represented in phoniatric consultations; they present increased risk of developing voice disorders. The most common lesion found in singers is nodule. It comes from vocal straining characterized by the use of a pressed phonation mode, resulting in an increase subglottal pressure and a decrease flow rate. Voice therapy aims to restore a more relaxed phonation. There is a growing interest in semi-occluded vocal tract exercises with a straw in therapy; they have positive effects, particularly in terms of aerodynamic parameters such as subglottal pressure and oral airflow. After these exercises, subglottal pressure decreases and oral airflow increases. In other words, patient adopts a more relaxed phonation mode. Several studies have investigated the effect of these straw exercises on dysphonic patients i.e. on speaking voice; no study to date has explored the effect of these exercises on dysodic subjects i.e. on singing voice. The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of straw exercises compared to open-mouth exercises on aerodynamic parameters in dysodic women singers with nodules.

The aim is to gain information about vocal hygiene knowledge level, phonotrauma behavior frequency, voice-related quality of life, and voice handicap index scores in children diagnosed with ADHD aged 8 to 11, through inter-group comparisons of scale and questionnaire data between children diagnosed with ADHD and control group participants aged 8 to 11.

The aim of the study is to follow acoustic and perceptual voice changes in trans men during hormone therapy and to examine the relationship between psychosocial and vocal characteristics and testosterone measured in routine follow-up in accordance with international follow-up guidelines.

In this observational pilot study, the investigators will record and assess voice samples from healthy participants and those participants affected by neurologic diseases to evaluate possible differences in voice features.

The aim of the study is to translate and culturally adapt the Turkish version of the EASE (EASE-TR) scale and investigate its validity and reliability.