Correlation Between a Diagnosis of Anxiety or Depression and Initial VHI‐10 Scores in Benign Dysphonia

ObjectiveAnxiety and depression have demonstrated a positive correlation with vocal handicap among patients with benign causes of dysphonia. Our objective is to explore differences in initial Vocal Handicap Index–10 (VHI-10) scores between patients with a mental health history of anxiety or depression and those without.Study DesignRetrospective cohort study.SettingDemographic data, diagnoses, and initial VHI-10 scores were collected for patients presenting with dysphonia to 2 tertiary laryngology clinics.MethodsA Kruskal-Wallis test and subsequent Mann-Whitney U test for pairwise comparisons were used to compare distribution of VHI-10 scores among patients with anxiety, depression, anxiety and depression, and no such conditions. Bonferroni correction was used to control for multiple comparisons. Robust regression was used for multivariable analysis.ResultsA total of 620 cases of benign dysphonia were analyzed. Forty-two percent of the patient cohort had a preexisting diagnosis of anxiety (n = 121, 20%), depression (n = 64, 10%), or anxiety and depression (n = 74, 12%). VHI-10 scores were higher in patients with depression than in those without anxiety or depression (median difference, 4 [95% CI, 1-8]; P = .005) but did not differ significantly among the other groups. The effects of depression and anxiety status on initial VHI-10 scores among the causes of benign dysphonia varied.ConclusionsPatients with a history of depression who presented with dysphonia had worse vocal handicap than those without anxiety/depression history. Future studies may clarify how optimization of anxiety and depression can affect patient-reported vocal handicap.