Spastic Dysphonia

A previous study completed in 2022 (NCT05158179) was conducted using cohorts of healthy controls, and adults with general laryngopharyngeal disorders. This study will expand on the previous research to include a separate cohort of adults being seen in clinic for an existing laryngopharyngeal disorder resulting from previous radiation or other cancer treatments.

The general aim of the research is to provide scientific evidence that vibro-tactile stimulation (VTS) represents a non-invasive form of neuromodulation that can induce measurable improvements in the speech of patients with laryngeal dystonia (LD) - also called spasmodic dysphonia (SD).

Previous research has shown that patients with voice disorders often have a lower quality of life and struggle with employment. Spasmodic Dysphonia (SD) is a voice disorder that causes abrupt and uncontrollable spasms of the voice box, often resulting in the person having lifelong changes in their voice and speech pattern. The current mainstay of treatment is injecting botulinum toxin (BT) injections into the vocal cord to ease the spasms. The same research team conducted a pilot study in April 2021 on patients with SD. The pilot study used questionnaires and short interviews to understand the livelihood of 10 SD patients. It displayed that SD may impact patients' quality of life. The investigators now aim to run an official research project, ethically approved, to explore the following questions further:
1. Does SD impact the socio-economic lives of its patients? If so, how?
2. What role does BT play in the socio-economic livelihood of SD patients?
To answer these questions, the investigators aim to interview 20 patients with Spasmodic Dysphonia.