The effect of sodium oxybate (Xyrem ®) in a patient with laryngeal dystonia and voice tremor before (A) and after (B) drug intake (Simonyan K and Frucht SJ, Tremor Other Hyperkin Dis, 2013)

Current treatment of laryngeal dystonia (LD) is limited to the temporary management of voice symptoms with repeated injections of botulinum toxin into the laryngeal muscles. However, botulinum toxin injections are not effective in all patients and even less so when LD is comined with voice tremor. Funded by the National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders, National Institutes of Health (NIDCD/NIH R01DC012545), we are conducting a Phase 2/3 double-blinded, placebo-controlled, cross-over, randomized clinical trial to identify the efficacy and primary determinants of clinical response to a novel oral medication, sodium oxybate (Xyrem®), in patients with alcohol-responsive laryngeal dystonia and voice tremor.