Laryngeal Manual Therapy

The next journal article called, “Immediate Effect of Laryngeal Manual Therapy in Dysphonic Individuals”, focused on investigating the immediate effect of Laryngeal Manual Therapy (LMT) in musculoskeletal pain, in voice, and sensations of individuals with and without functional dysphonia. Individuals with this type of dysphonia suffer from pain of extrinsic laryngeal muscles and postural changes. Typically, the treatment for this type of dysphonia included laryngeal massages and postural changes of the neck and shoulder. Furthermore, this type of treatment was referred as manual therapy. Additionally, the benefits of manual therapy have been extensively researched in the past. In 1990, the manual circumlaryngeal technique was found to reduce musculoskeletal tension associated with vocal hyperfunction, a symptom of functional dysphonia. Furthermore, the goal of this technique is to relax the laryngeal muscles. The results of this technique proved to be effective, as it reduced intensity of vocal discomfort and improved patients’ vocal quality. This purpose of this study was to verify LMT’S effects of musculoskeletal pain, on vocal quality, and on vocal sensations reported by patients with functional dysphonia.
Methods:
Thirty …show more content…
LMT was conducted before and after the questionnaire, in order to note its effects. Next, a vocal assessment of each patient elongating the /a/ vowel was conducted, which analyzed each patient’s vocal quality. The next test of the study was an auditory-perceptual analysis of each patient’s voice by three speech language pathologists. Specifically, they analyzed each patient’s vocal quality, roughness, breathiness, tension, and instability. Finally, LMT was conducted for twenty minutes after the various speech tests. After the LMT session, all of the speech tests were reconnected to compare the