TEXAS: Voice Therapy Helps Parkinson's Patients With Their Speech

[Murray Charters <mcharters@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

TEXAS: Voice Therapy Helps Parkinson's Patients With Their Speech
By Jan Jarvis
Star-Telegram Staff Writer

Posted on Wed, Sep. 24, 2003

ARLINGTON - At first, Milton Plomer's eyebrows never moved and his voice was so 
low it was hard for people to hear him.

But speech therapy designed for Parkinson's disease patients gave Plomer back 
his facial expression and raised his
voice.

"His eyes started sparkling, and his brows started moving," said Linda Bennett, 
Arlington Memorial Hospital's speech
therapy department manager. "He even smiled."

Plomer, 75, learned to speak louder and more clearly after undergoing Lee 
Silverman Voice Therapy, or LSVT, an
intensive treatment that helps people with Parkinson's disease improve their 
oral communication.

A free screening to identify Parkinson's patients who could benefit from the 
therapy is being offered from 10 a.m. to
noon Thursday at Arlington Memorial Hospital, Harris Methodist Fort Worth and 
Harris Methodist HEB.

Although Plomer had undergone traditional therapy, he said it wasn't until he 
tried LSVT in June that his voice
improved and he was able to communicate more naturally in social settings.

"With the traditional therapy, I could feel myself sliding," said Plomer, of 
Arlington. "This therapy stabilized my
speech. It's not a cure, but it certainly has helped."

More than 1.5 million people in the United States, most of them older than 60, 
have Parkinson's disease, a progressive
disorder of the central nervous system, according to the American Parkinson 
Disease Association.

About 75 percent of those with the disorder experience speech and voice 
problems as secondary symptoms of the disease,
which also causes tremors and rigidity.

Unlike traditional approaches that focus on articulation, LSVT teaches people 
to speak louder by exercising the muscles
of the voice box, said Bennett, a certified LSVT speech therapist.

Parkinson's impairs people's sensory monitoring system, she said. LSVT bombards 
them with stimulation.

More than 400 people who have been treated with LSVT in studies improved their 
volume, intonation and voice quality,
according to the LSVT Foundation, a nonprofit organization founded in 1998. In 
studies funded by the National
Institutes of Health, 90 percent of patients improved, and about 80 percent 
maintained the improvement for up to two
years.

The therapy was developed by Lee Silverman, a Parkinson's disease patient who 
felt trapped by her inability to
communicate, Bennett said.

"A person who can't communicate is a person in a box," she said.

When he began the therapy, Plomer said he felt as if he was shouting at people, 
but he soon realized that his voice was
perceived as normal by others. Today, Plomer, a retired aeronautical engineer, 
is comfortable talking in social
settings and teaching a Sunday school class.

"Before this, I was deteriorating to the point that I was ready to quit," he 
said. "Now people understand and hear me
better."

Lee Silverman Voice Therapy

The therapy helps people with Parkinson's disease improve their speech. Free 
screenings lasting about 15 minutes will
be offered from 10 a.m. to noon Thursday at:

? Arlington Memorial Hospital, Meeting Room B

? Harris Methodist Fort Worth, Classroom D of the Education Center

? Harris Methodist HEB, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Center, 251

Westpark Way; register by calling (888) 4-HARRIS.

? For general information, call (888) 606-5788.

SOURCE: Texas Health Resources
ONLINE: For more about LSVT, go to 
Jan Jarvis, (817) 548-5423 jjarvis@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

SOURCE: The Fort Worth Star Telegram, TX


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