Diagnosis of psychogenic dysphonia

Background factors, symptoms and signs were analysed in 40 consecutive patients with psychogenic dysphonia. Their voice profile was compared with that of 40 patients with infectious laryngitis. The majority of the patients were young females, non-smokers, who were not professional voice users. Criteria for acute infectious laryngitis prior the voice disorder were met in no more than 10% of the patients. Nevertheless as many as 40% of the patients had been treated with various antibiotics. The prevalence of reported asthma/allergy-like symptoms was high, 37.5%. Perceptual analysis of voice profiles demonstrated similarity of aberrancies in psychogenic dysphonia and in acute laryngitis. Since it may be difficult to distinguish psychogenic dysphonia from acute laryngitis, careful analysis of anamnestic data may be helpful for a correct diagnosis.