Spasmodic patterns. The other is called Abductor
Spasmodic dysphonia is a disorder that affects speech and is extremely rare with only .02% of the world’s population having it. We chose it because all the other brain disorders affected multiple areas of the body but spasmodic dysphonia is the only one that affected our speech and nothing else.
There is one factor that has been scientifically proven to increase the chance of being diagnosed with spasmodic dysphonia is, genes. If any previous family members have had any type of dystonia, then your chances of getting spasmodic dysphonia is a smaller percent higher than others. The first recorded case of spasmodic dysphonia was a man named Ludwig Traube in 1871, however there wasn’t a proper name or any science behind spasmodic dysphonia at the time. He described the condition as a “nervous hoarseness” in his voice and coined the term as “spastic dysphonia”. In 1968 when Aronson studied the disorder and declared that there were two types of the disorder, Adductor Spasmodic Disorder (AdSD for short) and Abductor Spasmodic Disorder (AbSD for short).
The study also showed that when feeling emotions, such as sadness and happiness, while having a conversation, the symptoms of spasmodic dysphonia are significantly reduced. People may have two different types of spasmodic dysphonia. One of which is Adductor Spasmodic Disorder, it has the voice box have a strangled strained hoarseness due to muscle tension patterns. The other is called Abductor Spasmodic Disorder, it makes the voice box breathy, and produce irregular speech sounds. The cause of spasmodic dysphonia is not exactly known however, researchers suggest that it stems from a chemical imbalance in the basal ganglia because that area in the brain coordinates movements of the muscles throughout the body including your voice box. There is no cure to spasmodic dysphonia however there is treatment options available to reduce the symptoms of it. One option is therapy for speech so they can stutter and pronounce words they could never have pronounced before.
A second option is botulinum toxin injections, the injections relax the muscles in your voice box providing relief for 4 months. You must keep getting injections every 4 months in order to keep the symptoms away. Certain prescription drugs are also given to patients who have spasmodic dysphonia to relax the muscles in their voice box.
One of the last treatments you can get is surgery. The surgery changes the thyroid cartilage shape to relax and slightly lateralize the vocal folds. Robert F.
Kennedy Jr has spasmodic dysphonia. He is important to spasmodic dysphonia because he brought it to the public when doing interviews to bring up issues about energy during 1968. Kristina Simonyan, MD PhD, is also bringing up neurological diseases by leading a research group in partner with National Institute of Deafness and Communications Disorders (NIDCD) to understand Spasmodic Dysphonia and other neurological disorders. The group also hopes to find a cure as well for the disorder. The research had begun in 2017 and plans to finish all research in 2021. Spasmodic dysphonia is a neurological disease that makes it hard to pronounce certain words. The first documented case of spasmodic dysphonia was in 1871. Then almost a century later in 1968 Aronson discovered that there are 2 types of spasmodic dysphonia.
The exact cause remains to be discovered. There is no cure but there are treatments such as, speech therapy, multiple medications, and Botulinum toxin injections. Research has started as of last year on neurological disorders, which includes spasmodic dysphonia, they hope to find the cause and cure.
In conclusion spasmodic dysphonia is a disease that may only affect 0.02% of the population but it’s a very serious disease that humans must find a cure for.
