Hearing thresholds and the use of delayed auditory feedback provided by SpeechEasy® in patients with Parkinson’s disease

Abstract

The wearable in-the-ear SpeechEasy® device is registered with FDA as an anti-stuttering device. It was first investigated as a therapeutic option for hypokinetic dysarthria in Parkinson’s disease (PD) by our group in 2008. While the results demonstrated positive treatment effects on hypokinetic dysarthria in PD, the question remains whether long-term use of the device could lead to detrimental effect on hearing in a typically aging population. Since the SpeechEasy® device has the capacity to provide various levels of increased volume to the wearer, the two main goals of the current study were to determine 1) whether the long-term use of this device caused a significant shift in our subjects’ hearing thresholds; and 2) the various output levels of the SpeechEasy® CF-BTE devices used in the study. All fifteen subjects who wore the SpeechEasy® device for one year in the Wang et al. 2008 study were included. Seven met inclusion criteria for determining if a potential standard threshold shift occurred during device usage. The results indicate that the SpeechEasy® device will not cause hearing loss if programmed correctly. However, because SpeechEasy device is capable of producing potentially high output levels if programmed incorrectly, a standardized device fitting protocol must be considered.