Temporal Variables in Voice Therapy

SummaryObjectiveThis study analyzed temporal voice therapy data (duration and frequency) as reported in the scientific literature between 1975 and May 2013.MethodsA PubMed search was conducted using the keywords “voice and therapy” and “therapy and dysphonia,” resulting in 93 qualified publications. This information was complemented by data reported in scientific textbooks (47 publications).ResultsThe results show that voice therapy lasts an average of 9.25 weeks distributed over 10.87 sessions of mostly 30 (36.36%) or 60 minutes (27.27%) and occurs once (34.55%) or twice (28.18%) per week. The total amount of time that a voice therapist spends face-to-face with the patient is 8.17 hours on average. Substantial geographic differences are observed, but only data from North America and Europe are sufficiently represented. For North American patients, more sessions (12.52) are reported over a shorter period (7.62 weeks), resulting in more face-to-face time (12.15 hours) between therapist and patient. However, the opposite trend is true for European patients, who average 10.99 sessions over 10.12 weeks, resulting in 7.68 hours of face-to-face time. The potential impact of diagnosis, clinical practices, prescription habits, health insurance rules, patient compliance, and study design on the representativeness of the data is discussed.ConclusionsThese results offer a frame of reference regarding international practices for temporal variables in voice therapy that may be useful when identifying voice therapy dosage and optimal practice.