Muscle Tension Dysphonia (MTD) is when a client has severe dysphonia and aphonia in the presence of normal or near normal appearing vocal folds. It is characterized by chaotic voicing and dysfunction during phonation. (Hancock, 2014). Since vocal presentation varies, the foundation of treatment can help manage a patient’s voice. There a multiple therapy approaches to treat a patient with MTD. Behavioral changes can be affected clinically, but clinicians need to be cautious in terms of education and clinical perspective. Patients often seek out multiple medical …show more content…
It is used to test how beneficial the visual biofeedback is when assessing therapeutic potential. The visual instrumental feedback parameters include amplitude, airflow and pitch (Hancock, 2014) This is important because it permits the clinician to know if the client is able to produce a sound.
Another strategy to use when assessing a patient with MTD is to use a perceptual assessment and probes. Some tools used are the Grade Roughness Breathiness Asthenia Strain (Isshiki, 1996) and the Consensus of Auditory Perceptual Evaluation of Voice (Karnell et al., 2006). Both scales will show the severity of the voice. These assessments will distinguish behaviors such as jaw tension, lingual posturing and overt breath holding.
It is significant to incorporate self-report measures into assessment in patients with behavioral voice change. The Voice Handicap Index (VHI) measures the effect of a voice complaint of an individual on quality of life. The VHI breaks down the nature of disturbance by functional, physical, and emotional factors. It provides a baseline for the understanding of voice impairment. This will give insight on how an individual perspective on their own voice. A Voice-Related Quality of Life Instrument can be used to breaks down a voice impairment into parameters (Hancock, 2014). This will give insight on how a patient feels about their voice loss. Sometimes patients will feel no burden in one area but complete