Researchers at Tel Aviv University have developed a new model for organizing the field of voice disorders

A new study conducted at Tel Aviv University – and due out soon in the professional journal JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery – proposes “a new model for organizing the field of voice disorders”. Voice disturbance is a common phenomenon manifested by vocal fatigue, hoarseness, refraction of voice, etc. The symptoms are more common in children, and also more common in women compared to men. Voice disorders are especially common in people whose occupation involves vocal exertion.

Many researchers claim that every third person will suffer from a voice disorder at some point in their life. A 2019 study conducted at Tel Aviv University showed that 14% of adults in Israel suffer from a voice disorder. Therefore, examination of the whole field of voice disorders is of great importance – theoretically and clinically, claim the members of the new research team.

Categorical thinking, and distinguishes between organic voice disorders in which a clear finding or lesion on the vocal cords can be identified, and functional voice disorders in which there is no finding or lesion on the vocal cords, but there is still a voice problem.

Even more recent approaches that have defined a greater number of categories of voice disorders — e.g .: neurological, structural, or psychological disorders — have remained limited, due to the categorical mode of division, which classifies each disorder into a single category, and does not allow overlap between different groups.

Researchers from Tel Aviv University have developed a new model that they say is “designed for a simple, efficient and dynamic organization of the field of voice disorders, in a way that is not categorical, but continuous and two-dimensional.”

A survey was conducted in which renowned experts in the field of voice disorders – communication clinicians and AG doctors – from ten countries participated. They were asked to rate a list of 35 pathologies of the throat and voice on the basis of two consecutive scales, which the score Sea in them ranges from 0 to 10. The scales used in the study were: 1. The strength of the organic component contributing to the formation of the pathology (Organicity), and 2. The degree of tension of the vocal cords that characterizes the pathology (Tonicity).

The findings demonstrated that the new model provides a broad and comprehensive representation of the field of vocal disorders. Also that the various disturbances are distributed continuously and not categorically – and is interpreted over the entire full range of the two-dimensional plane created by the connection of the two scales. The model makes it possible to compare different voice pathologies and rank them on continuous scales, taking into account their characteristics, regardless of the specific etiology. Of professionals regarding the similarities and differences between the various pathologies, as well as the development of new treatment methods that are more precisely adapted to the various voice disorders.

The study was led by Prof. Ofer Amir and his team from the Department of Communication Disorders at Tel Aviv University, including Dr. Ilan Rosiner, Nitzan Herzog , And Gaia Noam, in collaboration with Dr. Idit Gutman from the School of Psychological Sciences, Dr. Adi Primov-Faber from Sheba Medical Center, and Prof. Ron Biken from Columbia University in the USA.

Prof. Amir said this morning (Sunday): “The ways in which it is common to organize diseases, pathologies and various conditions in any medical field, are of critical theoretical and clinical importance, because they shape the thinking, understanding and knowledge of researchers and professionals in the field. These ways can expand, but also limit scientific thinking, thus promoting or delaying the development of the same field. We hope that the current study, which dealt with the organization and classification of the field of voice disorders, will significantly contribute to the diagnosis and treatment of the whole range of voice disorders. “

Prof. Amir added:” The treatment of various disorders is on the spectrum Categorically, it is not unique to the field of voice disorders. It represents a broad trend that is accepted in many different fields. The use of the “continuum idea” is now common in describing gender, referring to political views, describing mental disorders, referring to people with developmental disorders such as those on the autism spectrum and in many other areas.

“Therefore, applying the approach This approach to the field of voice disorders is, first and foremost, a significant theoretical stage in the development of the field of voice disorders.