Sintomas vocais e alterações laríngeas na bulimia: uma revisão de literatura

Abstract

Introduction: The voice is a very important function in human life, it plays a fundamental role in communication. It is the identification of the person, reveals emotions and feelings, so any voice modification is capable of affecting communication. It is known that bulimia nervosa is an eating disorder in which the individual undergoes high food intake, followed by compensatory behavior to avoid weight gain, mainly characterized by self-induced vomiting, causing the return of the gastric acid, accompanied by food, through the larynx, resulting in injuries and damage to vocal quality. Objective: To investigate the symptoms and vocal alterations presented by subjects with bulimia. Method: A narrative review of national and international literature was carried out in the following databases: LILACS, SciELO, PubMed and BVS. Results and discussion: The vocal alterations are explained by the exposure of the larynx to the acidic action of the gastric contents present in the vomit, thus causing symptoms and alterations similar to those found in gastroesophageal reflux. Hoarseness was the vocal symptom that predominated in 60% of the studies, while about laryngeal alterations there was no agreement regarding the findings among the studies. Conclusion: The most mentioned vocal symptoms were hoarseness, throat clearing and sore throat. Among the most frequent laryngeal alterations were vocal fold edema and presence of thick secretion accumulation in the larynx.