Psychosocial Perspectives On The Management Of Voice Disorders

Overviews various models of counselling and psychotherapy, with particular emphasis on the principles of systems theory and family therapy practice before going on to provide practical guidance, supplemented with case examples, on how to identify and implement them in the management of psychosocial voice disorders in clinical scenarios.

Communication is a key component of everyday life, but what happens when an individual is faced with a communication disorder? Today, the prevalence of individuals with communication disorders has increased substantially. However, many of these ailments are poorly understood, and medical professionals often lack the training and research necessary to manage and treat these individuals. The Handbook of Research on Psychosocial Perspectives of Human Communication Disorders is a critical scholarly resource that covers needs-based issues pertaining to the assessment and management of communication disorders. It provides the latest research on the importance of early identification, as well as prevention and intervention practices to promote healthy cognitive, speech, language, motor, social, and emotional development. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as speech therapy for children, behavior therapy, and communication disorders, this book is a vital reference source for clinical psychologists, audiologists, speech-language pathologists, special education teachers, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, physiatrists, otolaryngologists, and neurologists.

Since this book was first published, four years ago, there has been a considerable upsurge of interest in the field of both normal and abnormal voice production. Tangible evidence of this lies in the publication of the Journal of Voice in the United States, and in the UK the formation of the British Voice Association. This organization has attracted an increasing membership from professionals involved in all aspects of voice care and use - actors and singers, laryngologists and speech therapists, teachers and phoneticians. The Association holds regular study days, holds an annual two-day symposium, and publishes a Newsletter which attracts entries from this broad spectrum of professionals. We have also seen an increase in the number of specialist voice clinics, and in the two final chapters in this book a contrast is presented between such a specialist setting and the more typical clinic that operates in the majority of general hospitals. This last chapter now contains a breakdown of voice referrals over an eight-year period, which must represent a unique published study in this country. There still remains, however, little research into the management of voice disorders. There is clearly a need for more efficacy studies into specific treatment methods, and the single case-study designs developed in the field of aphasia would seem to be appropriate here.

Voice disorders may cause a significant communication handicap for voice professionals. Due to the high demands of their vocal performance, voice problems can be frequently observed in teachers. Voice loading, physical, environmental and psychoemotional factors, as well as personality may have an impact on vocal health. This special issue presents recent research and expert opinions from a biopsychosocial perspective. Contributions investigate the impact of teachers' voice disorders on their psychosocial work conditions and how stress and voice problems might be linked. Further, coping strategies are assessed and the subjective rating of voice handicap is connected with objective parameters. The last few articles focus on treatment. A review of the literature on behavioral treatment is given, and a systematic holistic integrative process of self-control for voicing is presented. Elucidating vocal health from different aspects this publication presents a wealth of knowledge to professionals such as voice specialists and otorhinolaryngologists, but also to psychologists dealing with voice disorders.

Functional Neurologic Disorders, the latest volume in the Handbook of Clinical Neurology series, summarizes state-of-the-art research findings and clinical practice on this class of disorders at the interface between neurology and psychiatry. This 51-chapter volume offers an historical introduction, chapters on epidemiology and pathophysiolology, a large section on the clinical features of different type of functional neurologic symptoms and disorders (including functional movement disorders, non-epileptic seizures, dizziness, vision, hearing, speech and cognitive symptoms), and then concluding with approaches to therapy. This group of internationally acclaimed experts in neurology, psychiatry, and neuroscience represent a broad spectrum of areas of expertise, chosen for their ability to write clearly and concisely with an eye toward a clinical audience. This HCN volume sets a new landmark standard for a comprehensive, multi-authored work dealing with functional neurologic disorders (also described as psychogenic, dissociative or conversion disorders). Offers a comprehensive interdisciplinary approach for the care of patients with functional disorders seen in neurologic practice, leading to more efficient prevention, management, and treatment Provides a synthesis of research efforts incorporating clinical, brain imaging and neurophysiological studies Fills an existing gap between traditional neurology and traditional psychiatry Contents include coverage of history, epidemiology, clinical presentations, and therapy Edited work with chapters authored by leaders in the field, the broadest, most expert coverage available

This book provides a step-by-step guide to understanding and treating psychogenic voice disorder by combining speech and language therapy with skills drawn from the field of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT). Beginning with a new classification of psychogenic voice disorder, the authors then provide a description of the CBT model and give helpful and systematic guidelines on using this approach in combination with speech and language therapy skills. They provide invaluable guidance on how to extend the standard voice case history to include a psychosocial assessment, and how to apply symptomatic voice therapy principles and techniques for this patient population. Later chapters show how to assess and work with patients suffering from symptoms of anxiety and lowered mood, and how to understand and respond to various forms of psychopathology that may present in association with voice disorder. Finally, detailed case studies illustrate how an experienced therapist might respond to individual assessment and treatment challenges.

There has been a tremendous growth of interest in the human voice and its disorders during the past decade. This has led to the development of a variety of 'voice labs' or 'voice clinics' that are able to offer unique interdisciplinary assessment and treatment facilities. To cover aJlthe bases, the voice care team requires input frorn laryngology, speech-language pathology, psychiatry, neurology, voice science, music pedagogy, biomedical engineering and other peripheral fields. Because of the multidisciplinary nature of voice dinics there have been a number of books written that address our subject from different professional perspectives. These tend to be multi-authored works that draw on expertise from around the world, such as alaryngologist frorn New York, a speech pathologist from Toronto, etc. All are coJleagues that share similar interests but never actually share the management problems of the same patients. This book has been planned and written by the members ofa single 'voice clinic'iIt is our hope that it willreflect a singleness of direction and purpose in the way it presents our approach to a complex topic. Because of our regular interactive meetings over problem patients inwhich we debate the meaning of our observations, the evolution of etiological dassification systems, and the rationale for particular therapy approaches, we feel that we have become a team that is greater than the sum of its parts, and that there is value in sharing our cumulative thoughts with others. This is not simply a laryngology text for laryngologists.

In this issue of Neurologic Clinics, guest editosr Drs. David L. Perez and Sara A. Finkelstein bring their considerable expertise to the topic of Functional Neurologic Disorders. Top experts in the field cover issues such as functional movement disorder: assessment and treatment; functional cognitive disorder: diagnosis, treatment, and differentiation from secondary causes of cognitive dysfunction; functional speech and voice disorders: diagnosis and treatment; personalizing clinical care in functional neurological disorder: a biopsychosocial-informed perspective; and more. Contains 13 relevant, practice-oriented topics including functional seizures: clinical and semiological features; persistent postural-perceptual dizziness (functional dizziness) functional neurological disorder: common diagnostic pitfalls; setting up a functional neurological disorder clinical program; outpatient occupational therapy for paroxysmal functional symptoms: sensory modulation training as an emerging treatment; sex and gender differences in functional neurological disorder; and more. Provides in-depth clinical reviews on functional neurologic disorders, offering actionable insights for clinical practice. Presents the latest information on this timely, focused topic under the leadership of experienced editors in the field. Authors synthesize and distill the latest research and practice guidelines to create clinically significant, topic-based reviews.