About Spasmodic Dysphonia

If your tight, strangled, broken, whispery, or otherwise “not quite right” voice has been diagnosed as spasmodic dysphonia (SD), this website will provide a wealth of information on the disorder.

Spasmodic dysphonia, also rerfered to as laryngeal dystonia, belongs to a family of neurological disorders called dystonias. A dystonia is a movement disorder that causes muscles to contract and spasm involuntarily. SD can also be referred to as laryngeal dystonia. Dystonias generally fall into the following categories:

  • Generalized which means they affect the entire body.
  • Focal which means they affect only a specific area of the body or group of muscles.

Spasmodic dysphonia is a task-specific, focal dystonia, meaning that the muscles spasm only when they are used for particular actions and not when they are at rest.