Vocal fatigue and dysphonia in the professional voice user: Bogart-Bacall syndrome.

Over the past 5 years, the authors have treated 67 adult professional voice users with a musculoskeletal tension disorder involving the larynx and supporting structures and leading to vocal dysfunction. Common clinical features in both sexes were muscle tension in the neck, poor control of the breath stream, and an abnormally low-pitched speaking voice. Most of the men sounded like Humphrey Bogart and the women like Lauren Bacall. These cases represent a discrete clinical vocal fatigue syndrome, the treatment of which is patient education and voice therapy.