Clinical characteristics of singers attending a phoniatric outpatient clinic

Abstract

Purpose: Studies suggest that singers are over-represented in voice clinics and present a high risk of developing voice disorders. This retrospective study aims to describe the characteristics of 78 singers consulting a phoniatrician.

Methods: In their medical files, data related to age, gender, occupational status, singing training, musical style, voice complaint, diagnosis, voice-quality grading (GRBAS) and treatment were gathered.

Results: The patients were mostly female singers (87%). Non-professional singers (semi-professional included) represented 64%, professional singers 25% and students of singing 11%. The majority of singers were choristers (27%) and 22% were classical-style/oratorio-style singers. Two-thirds of the population had intensive vocal activity in speech or singing. Vocal endurance, somatosensory signs and difficulties with high pitches were the most frequent symptoms. Among the patients, 79% presented with singing-voice disorders with 85% of these having vocal fold lesions. Generally, their speaking voices were preserved. Vocal-folds nodules were the most prevalent pathology (37%) followed by sulcus (26%) and voice therapy was the main treatment.

Conclusions: This study emphasizes the fact that singers have specific voice complaints related to their voice usage. The high occurrence of sulcus and other congenital-lesion suspicions, unusual in the general population consulting an ENT phoniatrician, seems to be rather specific for singers in agreement with the literature.

Keywords:

• Prevalence
• singing voice disorders
• singer
• phoniatric consultation

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Marion Beaud

Marion Beaud is both a speech therapist specialized in voice therapy, and a scientist working on singing voice disorders. She has been working in Montpellier, France, since 2013. She studied speech therapy and defended a thesis on the evolution of cognitive representations of vocal effectiveness in speech and singing in dysodic singers during vocal therapy. She obtained a master’s degree in experimental linguistics, and defended a master’s thesis on laryngeal resistance in singing, with a focus on the impacts of training level and dysodia. Currently, she is pursuing this work as part of a doctoral thesis at GIPSA-lab (Grenoble, France) together with her clinical professional activity. Her doctoral thesis is co-directed by Nathalie Henrich Bernardoni and Claire Pillot-Loiseau, in collaboration with the phoniatrician Benoît Amy de la Bretèque. Her research project focuses on dysodia (singing-voice disorder) assessment and management, and more specifically on epidemiology and evaluation of rehabilitation approaches.

Benoît Amy de la Bretèque

Benoît Amy de la Bretèque Phoniatrician attached to the ENT federation of Gui de Chauliac Hospital in Montpellier, Benoit Amy de la Bretèque also has a personal practice in singing, flute and choral conducting. He is very involved in voice research, training of speech therapists, actors, singers and singing teachers.

Claire Pillot-Loiseau

Claire Pillot-Loiseau is a lecturer in Phonetics at the General and Applied Linguistics and Phonetics Institute at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University, and she is also a speech therapist specialized in voice therapy. Her research in the Phonetics & Phonology Lab, and teachings, deal with four main areas: (1) typology of speech when singing with specific vocal techniques, (2) French as a Foreign Language (FFL) phonetics, (3) clinical phonetics, and (4) atypical voice and speech phonetics.

Nathalie Henrich Bernardoni

Nathalie Henrich Bernardoni is Research Director of the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS, Department of Human and Social Sciences), Head of Speech and Cognition Department of GIPSA-lab (Grenoble, France), choral conductor and singer. She is a scientist with a passion for human voice in all its forms of expression. Her research projects focus on experimental and clinical phonetics in speech and singing, on physiological and physical characterization of various vocal techniques (lyrical singing, contemporary music, world music), on vocal effort in speech and singing, as well as on developing and improving non-invasive experimental techniques for human-voice analysis.