Clinical Assessment and Treatment of Individuals with Vocal Tremor (VT) Julie Barkmeier-Kraemer, PhD, CCC-SLP Professor, ASHA-F University of Utah
[email protected] Julie Barkmeier-Kraemer, PhD, CCC-SLP, ASHA-F Professor, Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery Clinic Director, Voice Disorders Center Adjunct Faculty, Dept of CSD DISCLOSURES: • Financial: • Affiliate instructor with royalties from MedBridge Inc for my online courses on vocal tremor • NIDCD funds my research on essential tremor and vocal tremor (R01 DC016838) • Non-Financial: • ASHA: Member of SIGs 3, 12, 18 • Member of the NSDA Scientific Advisory Council Presentation Objectives: 1. Identify and describe the updated classification tremor criteria applied to vocal tremor and speech structures, 2. Describe clinical assessment approaches that enable improved differentiation between vocal tremor and laryngeal dystonia, and 3. Summarize treatment options for those with vocal tremor. Differential diagnosis of voice disorders “Spasmodic Dysphonia” Focal Laryngeal Dystonia (Albanese et al, 2013) Hyperkinetic movement disorder affecting 1 body part “Sustained or intermittent muscle contractions causing abnormal, often repetitive, movements, postures, or both.” Associated with onset or worsening specific to volitional speech activity (i.e. task specific) Affects 1 per 100,000 dystonia cases (Nutt, Muenter, Aronson, Kurland, Melton, 1988; Konkiewitz et al, 2002) Less than 8% of those with SD have family members with dystonia (Xiao, Zhao, Bastian, et al, 2010; Hintze et al, 2017) Terminology: Classification is everything 2019: Laryngeal 1971- Dystonia present: (NIDCD Spasmodic workshop) 1959-1997: Dysphonia Spastic Dysphonia Simonyan K, Barkmeier-Kraemer J, Blitzer A, Hallett M, Houde JF, Jacobson Kimberley T, Ozelius LJ, Pitman MJ, Mark Richardson R, Sharma N, Tanner K; NIH/NIDCD Workshop on Research Priorities in Spasmodic Dysphonia/Laryngeal Dystonia.