Functional Voice Problems Are More Common in Several Chronic Pain Syndromes

Fibromyalgia, irritable bowel, and chronic fatigue are syndromes that share chronic pain and other unexplained symptoms among their clinical manifestations. Otolaryngologists from a voice disorders clinic at a U.S. academic medical center anecdotally observed a high prevalence of these syndromes in patients with voice and airway symptoms; they conducted this retrospective study to examine the prevalence of functional voice disorders in patients with these syndromes. Of more than 4000 patients treated in their clinic, 215 patients had fibromyalgia, irritable bowel, or chronic fatigue. Forty-five common otolaryngologic diagnoses were organized in five categories (laryngeal pathology, functional voice disorders, airway problems, swallowing dis…