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Heavy Drinker. Noticed Changes In Voice With High Pitch. No Fever, Cold Or Cough. Any Thoughts?

Posted on Tue, 19 Feb 2013

Question: My brother is 58 and a very heavy drinker. Today he had a busy and active day in the morning, took a nap in the afternoon and woke up with a total change in his voice. He talks with a very high pitch - almost like a cartoon character. This has not gone away for the last 4 hours. He has no fever no cold, no cough, no allergies and has not yelled or screamed in anyway that would affect his voice. He can smile, lift his hands above his head and doesnt feel weak. He feels fine except his voice is totally different, high pitched (freaky sounding) and it is nothing he is doing.
Any thoughts?

Guessing that he did drink at some point today but he doesnt appear intoxicated at all.
He even thinks his voice sounds very strange. We are worried ...................

Answered by Dr. Sundar Gnanavel (2 hours later)

Hello.........
Thanks for your query. I understand your concern for your brother. Alcohol has multiple actions over vocal cord- acts as a direct irritant, relaxes the smooth muscles of your vocal cord and reduces the hydration level. All this results in hoarseness/change in voice. The simple advice would be to drink plenty of water to regain hydration and give rest to vocal cords i.e not to talk for a few hours. This should normalise your brother's voice. If not, an ENT evaluation is recommended for ruling out other local pathology in vocal cord. To me, it does not appear to be a serious disease. Wish him speedy recovery.
Regards
Dr Sundar

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar