Evaluation of Subjective and Objective Voice Characteristics in Patients With Bulimia Nervosa.

OBJECTIVE

The present study aims to examine subjectively and objectively the voice changes in bulimia nervosa (BN) patients at different stages of treatment.

METHOD: The study was conducted with a study group including 10 patients followed up with a diagnosis of BN and a control group consisting of 10 healthy participants of a similar age group without eating disorders. The Reflux Symptom Index (RFS) was used for stroboscopic evaluation. The fundamental frequency (F0), jitter, shimmer, and noise-to-harmonics ratio were determined during acoustic voice analysis. Maximum phonation time was analyzed. A subjective evaluation was performed using the Voice Handicap Index-10 (VHI-10).

RESULTS

Jitter, shimmer, VHI-10 score, and RFS values showed a statistically significant difference in the patient and control groups (P < 0.05). The mean values of jitter, shimmer, VHI-10 score, and RFS were higher in the patient group than in the control group. Maximum phonation time did not differ between groups (P > 0.05) Age and F0 (Hz) values showed no statistically significant difference in the patient and control groups (P > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

In BN patients, the laryngopharyngeal reflux mechanism causes negative effects on vocal cord examination and acoustic sound analysis parameters, leading to subjective dissatisfaction.