The aim of this study was to describe the essential speech aspects of Machado-Joseph disease in a male patient with this diagnosis, selected among others with the same disease that received treatment at the Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology department of Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre (Brazil). Regarding the speech process, it was observed ataxic dysarthria, which worsened from light to severe with the evolution of the disease. These results allowed the conclusion that speech alterations become more and more significant for Machado-Joseph patients, together with deficits in breathing, articulation, phonation and resonance. Finally, it was possible to suggest that Speech Pathology treatment is essential in Machado-Joseph disease, although more studies are necessary, with larger samples, in order to better characterize the speech alterations observed this study.
Machado-Joseph disease; Articulation disorders; Dysarthria; Spinocerebellar ataxias; Speech therapy