Effect of speech therapy and pharmacological treatment in prosody of parkinsonians.

OBJECTIVE Parkinsonian patients usually present speech impairment. The aim of this study was to verify the influence of levodopa and of the adapted Lee Silverman Vocal Treatment® method on prosodic parameters employed by parkinsonian patients. METHOD Ten patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease using levodopa underwent recording of utterances produced in four stages: expressing attitudes of certainty and doubt and declarative and interrogative modalities. The sentences were recorded under the effect of levodopa (on), without the effect of levodopa (off); before and after speech therapy during the on and off periods. RESULTS The speech therapy and its association with drug treatment promoted the improvement of prosodic parameters: increase of fundamental frequency measures, reduction of measures of duration and greater intensity. CONCLUSION The association of speech therapy to medication treatment is of great value in improving the communication of parkinsonian patients.