Voice Therapy in Mutational Falsetto: A Narrative Review.

Area of Science:

• Otolaryngology
• Speech-Language Pathology
• Voice Science

Background:

• Mutational falsetto is a functional voice disorder characterized by a persistent high-pitched voice in males after puberty.
• It leads to dysphonia, characterized by falsetto voice, low intensity, nasality, and breathiness.
• Voice therapy is the primary intervention for managing these vocal symptoms.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review the effectiveness of various voice therapy techniques for treating mutational falsetto.
• To synthesize findings on the impact of different therapeutic approaches on vocal outcomes.

Main Methods:

• A comprehensive literature search was performed across major electronic databases (PubMed/MEDLINE, ScienceDirect, SCOPUS, Google Scholar).
• Keywords included "voice therapy," "mutational falsetto," "puberphonia," and "speech therapy."
• Eleven relevant English-language studies investigating voice therapy techniques for mutational falsetto were included.

Main Results:

• Eleven studies were included, with most focusing on eclectic voice therapy approaches combining techniques like yawn-sigh, glottal fry, and humming.
• One study examined manual therapy as a physiologic approach.
• Voice therapy demonstrated significant positive effects on multiple vocal function parameters, with nearly all voice quality measures improving (P < 0.05).

Conclusions:

• Voice therapy, utilizing diverse techniques, is the established first-line treatment for mutational falsetto.
• Significant improvements in voice quality and function were observed across studies.
• Further research with larger samples and standardized methods is necessary to determine optimal techniques.