title: Effect of voice rehabilitation on oral communication of Parkinson's disease patients.
abstract: Voice and speech disorders are common in Parkinson's disease patients and may lead to social isolation. We employed routine clinical voice therapy measures to evaluate the effect of voice rehabilitation. Twenty patients with a stable drug regimen participated in this study. The patients were assessed before and after a program of voice rehabilitation consisting of 13 group therapy sessions during 1 month, with emphasis on the increase in laryngeal sphincteric activity. Voice rehabilitation produced an increase in maximal phonation times, decrease in the values of s/z ratio and air flow, increase in vocal intensity, decrease in the complaints of weak and strained-strangled voice and monotonous and unintelligible speech and elimination of complaints of swallowing alterations. These data indicate a greater glottic efficiency after voice rehabilitation reflecting a more functional oral communication.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Escola Paulista de Medicina, Brazil.
authors.forename: E C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: de Angelis
authors.forename: L F
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Mourão
authors.forename: H B
authors.initials: HB
authors.lastname: Ferraz
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Behlau
authors.forename: P A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Pontes
authors.forename: L A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Andrade
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D013064:Speech Disorders / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D013065:Speech Intelligibility; D013068:Speech Production Measurement; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014832:Voice Disorders / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D014834:Voice Training