Effects of Botulinum Toxin

This research describes proposed study that will assess the longterm effects of the drug botulinum toxin on spasmodic dysphonia patients. Background information on spasmodic dysphonia and a review of prior research are presented in this introduction to the proposed study. Methods and procedures that will be employed in the conduct of the proposed study are described and explained in a discussion of the proposed research methodology.

Background Information on Spasmodic Dysphonia

Speech production refers to the fluency of articulation of speech and voice volume (Stathopoulos and Sapienza, 1993, pp. 6475). Disturbance of these factors lead to phenomena that are often incorrectly diagnosed as psychogenic in character when in fact they are neurologic in character. Among these phenomena are stuttering, patilalia, cluttering, dysarthia, dysphonia, and mutism.

Dysphonia is an impairment or loss of voice volume (Sataloff, Spiegel, and Hawkshaw, 1993, pp. 551570). The disturbance in phonation may be due local diseases affecting the respiratory system or vocal chords, or the disturbance may be a manifestation of a neurological disease affecting the speech musculature or its innervation.

Spasmodic dysphonia is a specific and odd phenomenon that is due to a contraction of the speech musculature (Sataloff, 1992, pp. 843855). A person afflicted with spasmo

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be selected for the proposed study will be comprised of all individuals afflicted with spasmodic dysphonia who reside in the greater Philadelphia area and who have not in the past received treatment for the condition. A newspaper advertisement explaining the symptoms of spasmodic dysphonia will be placed which will invite all such individuals experiencing the specified phenomena to contact the research team for evaluation for participation in the proposed study if they have not at any time in the past received therapy for the condition. Additionally, area physicians and speech pathologists will be asked to recommend candidates for participation in the study, again as long as those individuals recommended have not at any time in the past received therapy for the condition. All individuals expressing an interest in the study will be evaluated by the research team. Those individuals diagnosed as suffering from spasmodic dysphonia will constitute the group from which the research sample will be selected. The size of the research sample selected will be determined through the application of the following equation (Summers, Peters, and Armstrong, 1985, p. 244): n = z2s2/h2, where: z = the standard normal deviate for the
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Approximate Word count = 1625
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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