ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines how voice disorders can be assessed in clinical and occupational settings.
CLINICAL DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS
The clinical differential diagnosis of voice disorders is a complex process that is likely to require the combined expertise of a number of related disciplines (1-8). A change in voice quality (e.g., hoarseness, change in pitch, change in resonance) or vocal performance (e.g., inability to shout, loss of singing voice, inability to talk for long periods of time) may be caused by a variety of pathologies and exacerbated by a
number of additional factors. For these reasons, accurate differential diagnosis is vital, and this process is described in detail below. A comprehensive explanation of all the possible causes of voice disorders lies outside the scope of this work. Whole books have been devoted to this subject, and the interested reader is directed to several classics in the field (2-8).
