
Researchers from the UT Dallas Callier Center for Communication Disorders and Baylor Institute for Rehabilitation (BIR) are working together to investigate the effects of drinking water on patients with dysphagia, a disorder that affects a person’s ability to swallow. Their study will document the benefits and problems of the “free water protocol,” which lets patients have water and ice instead of restricting them to liquids that have been artificially thickened. “Currently, some medical practitioners discourage patients with dysphagia from drinking water due to concerns that aspiration of the water into the lungs may result in pneumonia,” said Helen Kenedi, MS, principal investigator of the study and clinical lecturer in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences. “Patients who are denied access to water often report that they are thirsty, are dehydrated and have a decreased quality of life.”