Dear Bob,
I do not know of any systematic studies that look at the
effect of pallidotomy on speech. Now that the popularity of
pallidotomy has increased so much, I am thinking of
examining that issue myself. I'm sorry to hear that your
mother's speech is worse.
Speech therapy for Parkinson's disease has waxed and waned
in popularity, like the pallidotomy! An article written by
Martha Taylor Sarno in 1968 (in the _Archives of Physical
Medicine and Rehabilitation_, vol. 49, pp. 269-275) set the
stage of despair regarding speech therapy for many years.
She states that over 300 patients were treated in her
program over a 15 year period, and "it is our strong
impression that the speech of these patients does not
improve with treatment." However, new techniques and
approaches are reporting encouraging results that last even
after therapy has ended (see Ramig, Bonitati, Lemke, &
Horii, 1994, "Voice treatment for patients with Parkinson
disease: Development of an approach and preliminary efficacy
data" in _Journal of Medical Speech-Language Pathology_,
vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 191-209.).
In the case of a patient who has had brain surgery
(pallidotomy or otherwise), the findings of these studies
may not apply. I would strongly encourage your mother to
have a thorough speech evaluation conducted by a
speech-language pathologist. It may be possible to improve
her speech, but even if it is not, the speech-language
pathologist can help your mother develop alternate methods
of communication. This is so important for her quality of
life. Good luck.
Nancy Pearl Solomon, Ph.D.
Asst. Research Scientist
Dept. of Speech Pathology and Audiology, and
National Center for Voice and Speech
University of Iowa
