The efficacy of holistic voice therapy on opera and acting students with functional dysphonia

The aim of this study is to investigate the efficacy of the holistic voice therapy model designed for elite vocal performers on opera and acting students having functional dysphonia. For this purpose, an equal number of participants who have functional dysphonia studying in opera and acting departments have been randomly assigned to the experimental (n=14) and control (n=14) groups. While 8 session of holistic voice therapy, which approached the voice in a multidimensional way, have been applied to the experimental group, no intervention has been made to the control group. For experimental group, pre, post and follow-up data of Turkish Voice Handicap Index-10, Turkish Singing Voice Handicap Index-10, Turkish Vocal Fatigue Index, Vocal Awareness Questionnaire, acoustic and aerodynamic measures, and CAPE-V have been collected and analyzed with Repeated Measures ANOVA or Friedman Tests. In the control group, data of the same variables have been collected at 8-week intervals and analyzed with Paired Sample t-test or Wilcoxon tests. The gain score between the groups have been calculated and comparisons have been made using Independent Sample t-test or Mann Whitney U tests. Significant differences have been found in the Turkish Voice Handicap Index-10, Turkish Singing Voice Handicap Index-10, Vocal Awareness Questionnaire, /s/ duration and maximum phonation time, AVQI and CAPE-V parameters in the experimental group after the holistic therapy. There is no significant difference between the pre-test and post-test scores of control group. As a result, it is found that the holistic voice therapy has a positive effect on both singing and speaking voice of opera and acting students with functional dysphonia.