Classification and Approach to Patients with Functional Voice Disorders

Functional voice disorders result from vocal misuse or abuse; they are more easily recognized than other psychosomatic disorders because the clinician is able to visualize the laryngeal structure and function. If those structures appear normal, then an aberration of voice quality can be assumed to be functional. Functional dysphonia with prolonged aberrant vocal usage may lead to development of secondary pathological lesions of the larynx, which, although true pathological entities, must be recognized as resulting from the underlying and preceding functional disorder. In this report, we present a classification of and an approach to the diagnosis and treatment of functional voice disorders. On the basis of our clinical experience with 52 patients, we distinguished five types of functional voice disorders: type 1, hysterical aphonia/dysphonia; type 2, habituated hoarseness; type 3, falsetto voice, type 4, vocal abuse; and type 5, postoperative dysphonia. Forty-eight of the 52 patients (92%) were followed for a median period of 16 months (range 2-51 months). Therapy yielded excellent results in patients with types 1, 2 and 3; good results with types 4 and 5.