Psychosocial impact on puberphonic and effectiveness of voice therapy: A case report
B Bhattarai, A Shrestha, Sunil Kumar Shah
2010
Journal of College of Medical Sciences-Nepal
Puberphonia is a disorder predominant on post-pubescent male (without known organic cause), who exhibit higher register than other male of the same age group. This disorder has also been observed in females, where the manifestation is very less, as females generally have higher register voice. This condition in female is known as "Juvenile Resonance Disorder" or "Little Girls' Voice". The high voice may be produced at the top of the chest register or in falsetto; this high voice is sometimes
more »
... led mutational falsetto. It may be associated with mild dysphonia and increased, effortful phonation. Vocal instability is often marked with extensive frequency swing. Vocal impairment in male is generally of higher pitch i.e. above 200Hz, and sometimes observable with downward pitch breaks. Downward pitch break reveals the natural lower pitch level, which may be close to 110-125 Hz. o Aerodynamic characteristics: Possibly elevated then average airflow, if breathy voice accompanies higher pitch. o Acoustic characteristics: Elevated in young men and women during or after pubertal changes. Abstract: Puberphonia is a rare disorder, in which the patient manifests higher register voice than others of their same age group. Manifestation is less in women than men. The prevalence is 1 in 900,000. Apart from impact on voice of patient, puberphonia also has impact on the psycho-social aspect. Different treatment modalities have been put forward in the past, many of which lack validity and EBP. Voice therapy has proven to be the most effective in the management of puberphonia. Voice Handicap Index (VHI) is a tool for assessing the perceived handicap by the patient. VHI has 3 parts and overall score of 120 and individual subset has score of 40 each. Result: Patient who received voice therapy obtained better score on the overall scale as well as on each subsets of the VHI. Conclusion: The study concludes that the voice therapy not only improves the voice quality of the patient, but also improves the quality of life of the patient. The impact of voice disorder (puberphonia) is most prominent on the emotional section.
doi:10.3126/jcmsn.v6i1.3605
fatcat:az2quqadkrespcl6pxnd2n7ytm