Summary
This study was to present an odor provocation/challenge test for laryngeal hypersensitivity
in a suspected odor induced dysphonic patient. The second aim was to rule out secondary
gain from organic laryngeal hypersensitivity. Two steps were taken for this purpose.
First, because the evaluation of hypersensitivity may be affected by the perception
of odor, the study investigated laryngeal hypersensitivity during nasal and oral breathing
separately to disentangle possible cognitive reactions to odors. Second, a healthy
control (HC) participant was used with the identical testing protocol for nasal breathing
to minimize unbiased results. The HC's response to nasal breathing of the odors showed
no response to all the stimuli. The participant with possible secondary gain issues
responded differently to the odors when presented nasally versus orally. Oral breathing
showed less severe and less frequent laryngeal hypersensitive reactions. This suggests
that laryngeal hypersensitivity was either due to the odor, cognitive information,
sensory changes in olfaction leading to psychological conditioning, or for any possible
secondary gain. Hence, it is difficult to indicate the precise reason (cause and effect)
for the participant's laryngeal hypersensitivity; however, this study describes the
first structured, controlled, repeatable, and randomized design to investigate odor
induced laryngeal hypersensitivity and decipher possible secondary gain from true
laryngeal hypersensitivity.
Key Words
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Article Info
Publication History
Published online: May 21, 2007
Accepted:
October 11,
2006
Identification
Copyright
© 2008 The Voice Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
