Prevalence, etiology and treatment of psychogenic aphonia in children: A case report

Introduction. Emotions are one of the most important psychological processes, with a decisive influence on a person's voice. Faced with the great challenges and changes that primary and secondary socialization agents impose in the process of growing up, children consequently experience a spectrum of various unpleasant feelings: anxiety, fear, anger, frustration and sadness. Due to the fast-paced lifestyle, it often happens that the child ignores unpleasant feelings, which further worsens the condition in which he finds himself. Among other conditions, psychogenic aphonia in children has become more frequent in recent years. The current case report aims to determine the frequency of psychogenic aphonia in children, to identify the most common causes that lead to psychogenic aphonia and highlight the methods of vocal treatment that give the best results during rehabilitation. Case report. The current paper presents the results collected in a two-year period at the Clinic for Ear, Throat and Nose of the Clinical Hospital Center "Zvezdara". In the period from March 2017 to May 2019, psychogenic aphonia was diagnosed in 31 patients, which is an evident increase compared to the previous ten-year period in which psychogenic aphonia was diagnosed in 38 younger patients. Analyzing heteroanamnestic data obtained from parents, the most common answer about the cause of psychogenic aphonia is dissatisfaction with school success. After successful diagnostics by an otorhinolaryngologist, psychiatrist and vocal pathologist, in the process of rehabilitation of psychogenic aphonia, methods of digital manipulation of the larynx, methods of restoring the voice with cough reflex and methods of turning out the feedback system were applied. In this particular case, the method of digital manipulation of the larynx gave the best results. Conclusion. Optimal evaluation of patients with voice disorders requires the joint efforts of experts from different disciplines. Having in mind the tendency of recurrence of psychogenic aphonia, these findings suggest that the integration of the interventions of a vocal pathologist and a psychiatrist could give effective results in the process of rehabilitation voice.