Two cases of psychogenic hearing loss combined with aphonia

Abstract

Two cases of psychogenic hearing loss combined with psychogenic aphonia are reported. Case one was a 15-year-old female with psychogenic hearing loss that appeared just before taking a high school entrance examination. After she passed the examination, the complaint of hearing loss was reduced. Three years later she suddenly suffered from psychogenic aphonia prior to taking a college entrance examination. The aphonia also diminished after she passed the examination. Both the hearing loss and aphonia were attributed to the stress caused by the entrance examinations. Case two was a 26-year-old female who suddenly suffered from profound hearing loss and aphonia simultaneously. The conditions were brought on apparently by a psychogenic reaction to a stressful relationship with her mother-in-law. In both cases, the threshold of auditory brain stem evoked response was normal while the threshold of pure tone audiogram indicated profound sensorineural hearing loss. The phonolaryngogram was useful for diagnosis and evaluation of voice disturbance.