Vol.99 No.11 contentsPRACTICA OTO-RHINO-LARYNGOLOGICA
Vol. 99 No. 11 November 2006
Response to Abnormal Sensation in the Throat
Toshio Ogoshi
(Second Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Toho University School of Medicine)
Abnormal sensations in the throat can be induced by a wide variety of causes, and therefore requires both mental and physical approaches to treatment. In addition, malignant tumors maybe detected in a small number of patients with complaints of abnormal sensations in the throat, and this must never be overlooked. While there have been numerous reports descring various tests, diagnostic methods for determining the causes of abnormal sensations in the throat as well as administration the of therapeutic drugs vary among facilities and few reports have investigated cases of abnormal sensations refractory to initial treatment. Furthermore, although the involvement of psychogenesis in this illness is not small, the extent of its involvement is extremely difficult to assess. While therapeutic determination using various psychological tests and the effects of mild tranquilizers has been attempted, clarification of the extent of psychogenic involvement in this illness remains difficult, as does the treatment of this illness as a psychosomatic illness in the field of otolaryngology.
Improvement in abnormal sensations in the throat is determined by changes in the subjective symptoms of the patient. Many reports on the treatment of abnormal sensations in the throat have focused on the effects of administering a specific drug in response to a defined cause of illness, and few have reported the final improvement rates of the patients included in these studies. In other words, it is important to investigate secondary and tertiary treatment methods and the extent to which abnormal sensations in the throat has been improved in patients with abnormal sensations refractory to initial treatment, as well as the appropriate course of action when improvements are not observed.
Key words :abnormal sensations in the throat, diagnose, treatment, improvement rates