To assess the feasibility and effectiveness of a newly developed assistive technology system, Lee Silverman Voice Treatment Companion (LSVT® Companion™, hereafter referred to as “Companion”), to support the delivery of LSVT®LOUD, an efficacious speech intervention for individuals with Parkinson disease (PD).
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A surgical procedure involving transplantation of fetal dopamine cells into the striatum of persons with advanced Parkinson disease (PD) has recently been performed in an attempt to alleviate Parkinsonian and drug-dose related symptoms (e.g., the “on-off” phenomena). Improvements in limb motor and neurological function, as well as less severe and shorter on-off episodes have been reported following fetal cell transplant (FCT) surgery.
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This study investigated the effect of two forms of intensive speech treatment, (a) respiration (R) and (b) voice and respiration (Lee Silverman Voice Treatment [LSVT]), on the speech and voice deficits associated with Idiopathic Parkinson disease. Forty-five subjects with Idiopathic Parkinson disease completed extensive pretreatment neurological, otolaryngologicai, neuropsychological, and speech assessments. All subjects completed 16 sessions of intensive speech treatment, 4 times a week for 1 month. Pre- and post-treatment measures included intensity and maximum duration during sustained vowel phonation.
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Increasing phonatory effort, an integral component of the Lee Silverman Voice Treatment, LSVT, has been identified as an effective management strategy for adults with hypokinetic dysarthria associated with Parkinsonism. The present study compares the effects of increased loudness on lower lip movements to those of changes in speaking rate, another approach to the treatmentm of hypokinetic dysarthria. Movements of the lower lip/jaw during speech were recorded from 8 adults with IPD, 8 healthy aged adults, and 8 young adults.
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This study examined changes in voice and speech production in a patient with Parkinson disease as he increased vocal intensity following 1 month of intensive voice treatment. Phonatory function and articulatory acoustic measures were made before and after treatment as well as 6 and 12 months later. Pre- to post-treatment increases were documented in sound pressure level in sustained phonation, syllable repetition, reading, and monologue.
Continue Reading →Recent treatment for voice problems associated with idiopathic Parkinson disease has primarily focused on increasing reduced vocal loudness and improving true vocal fold hypoadduction, common voice deficits observed in these individuals. This study presents an individual with reduced vocal loudness and supraglottic hyperadduction accompanying Parkinson disease and the outcome following a course of the Lee Silverman Voice Treatment (LSVT). Posttreatment observations included increased vocal loudness, decreased supraglottic hyperadduction, and improved intonation and overall voice quality when compared with pretreatment observations. These results suggest that in this individual, supraglottic hyperadduction was due to a secondary compensatory behavior resulting from mild true vocal fold hypoadduction that responded positively to adduction therapy (LSVT).
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The purpose of this study was to document changes in aerodynamic and glottographic aspects of vocal function in patients with Parkinson disease who received two forms of high effort treatment. Previous reports (Ramig, Countryman, Thompson, & Horii, 1995) have documented increased sound pressure level (SPL) following treatment that trained phonation and respiration (Lee Silverman Voice Treatment: LSVT), but not for treatment that trained respiration only (R). In order to examine the mechanisms underlying these differences, measures of maximum flow declination rate (MFDR) and estimated subglottal pressure (Psub) were made before and after treatment.
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To evaluate the effects of intensive voice treatment targeting vocal loudness (the Lee Silverman Voice Treatment [LSVT]) on vowel articulation in dysarthric individuals with idiopathic Parkinson’s disease (PD).
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The vowel space area (VSA) has been used as an acoustic metric of dysarthric speech, but with varying degrees of success. In this study, the authors aimed to test an alternative metric to the VSA—the formant centralization ratio (FCR), which is hypothesized to more effectively differentiate dysarthric from healthy speech and register treatment effects.
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Successful treatment of speech disorders in individuals with progressive neuro logical diseases can be challenging. The consensus that speech treatment has not been effective for individuals with IPD is, perhaps, the basis for the report that of the 75%–89% of these individuals with voice and speech disorders, only 3%–4% receive speech treatment (Hartelius & Svensson, 1994; Oxtoby, 1982).
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