Tinnitus (original) (raw)
A condition that often accompanies hearing loss is tinnitus, which is a "phantom noise". The intensity can vary from mild to overwhelming; the sound can be intermittent or continuous, musical or irritating, pure tone or a cacophony of noise.
March 2003 – Laine Waggoner just put together a great tinnitus update, and she has generously shared it with us.
August 2003 – A New Zealand study confirms what many of you already know – tinnitus causes depression.
December 2004 – Is Botox the latest miracle cure for tinnitus?
October 2005 – An "Advance for Audiologists" article reports that a recently approved drug to treat alcoholism may also be effective in treating tinnitus!
February 2006 – When noise plagues you
February 2006 – Tinnitus victim not responding to implant
February 2006 – Lives ‘devastated’ by tinnitus
February 2006 – Melatonin pills may help ease tinnitus
March 2006 – A recent study concludes that people with chronic, moderate tinnitus don’t perform as well on some tests of cognitive function as people without tinnitus. Here’s the report.
March 2006 – Easing learning with chronic tinnitus
March 2006 – Twelve million seek medical help for tinnitus
March 2006 – Tinnitus may interfere with tough mental tasks
May 2006 – Struggling with tinnitus
May 2006 – New treatment for people with tinnitus!
May 2006 –How to treat tinnitus
May 2006 –You can manage but not cure tinnitus
June 2006 – Tinnitus: Do you Hear that Ringing Noise?
October 2006 – ATA Promotes More Research to Benefit Veterans with Tinnitus
December 2006 – Clinical Factors of Tinnitus Influence Perceived Loudness and Annoyance
December 2006 – Veteran’s Tinnitus Case Goes to Court
January 2007 – Sound Advice About Tinnitus Treatment
January 2007 – Psychotherapy Quiets Concerns Over Ringing in the Ears
January 2007 – Beta-Carotene and Tinnitus
February 2007 – Low-pitch treatment alleviates ringing sound of tinnitus
February 2007 – Auris Medical Initiating Clinical Trial with Tinnitus Drug
May 2007 – Treatments target tinnitus’ constant ring
June 2007 – For Those With Hearing Loss, the Noise Can Be Awful
June 2007 – Basque Research Announces Successful Tinnitus Treatment
July 2007 – TRT Effective in Treating Tinnitus
August 2007 – Tinnitus Help Hard to Find
August 2007 – Progress in explaining tinnitus via brain imaging
August 2007 – Tinnitus: Addressing Neurological, Audiological, and Psychological Aspects with Customized Therapy
August 2007 – That ringing in your ears can be caused by many things
August 2007 – Changing Reactions to Tinnitus
September 2007 – Neuromonics Launches First U.S. Clinical Study to Assess Long-Term Tinnitus Treatment
October 2007 – Searching For The Brain Center Responsible For Tinnitus
October 2007 – Brain Retraining Promises Aid for Tinnitus
November 2007 – Cells in Developing Ear May Explain Tinnitus
November 2007 – Iraq & Afghanistan war vets suffer from hearing loss, tinnitus
November 2007 – Music Therapy Shows Promise for Tinnitus Sufferers
December 2007 – Experimental treatment takes aim against dreadful tinnitus
January 2008 – Research lifts hopes for better treatment of tinnitus
January 2008 – Overactive Nerves May Account for "Ringing in the Ears"
January 2008 – The Brain Activity Behind Tinnitus Uncovered
January 2008 – Auris Medical Conducting Clinical Trials on Tinnitus Treatment
February 2008 – Tinnitus, Herbal Supplements & You
February 2008 – Ringing in Your Ears? It Might Be in Your Jaw
February 2008 – Somatosensory Neurons May Play Role in Tinnitus Pathogenesis
February 2008 – The United States Versus Tinnitus
March 2008 – Repetitive Transcranial Stimulation May Relieve Tinnitus
April 2008 – New Therapies Fight Phantom Noises of Tinnitus
April 2008 – Clear Products offers product for tinnitus relief
May 2008 – Clear talk from renowned tinnitus experts
June 2008 – Neuromonics Tinnitus Treatment Study Published in ENT Journal
June 2008 – Changes in Central Auditory Pathway for Tinnitus Sufferers?
July 2008 – Tinnitus Patients Have a Friend in Zebrafish
July 2008 – UAMS Study Shows Potential to Greatly Diminish Ringing in the Ears
August 2008 – Is It Tinnitus?
August 2008 – Auris Medical reporting results of tinnitus drug phase I/II clinical trial
August 2008 – HearingMed Conducts Clinical Trial for New Laser Tinnitus Therapy
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Tinnitus Causes Depression
August 2003
The New Zealand Herald is reporting that tinnitus can cause depression. Tinnitus is sound that the brain "invents". Different people hear different sounds, including ringing, crackling, and buzzing. It becomes more common as people age, and is often associated with hearing loss. A number of "causes" have been suggested, including trauma, loud noise, infection, and medications.
The Herald reports that about 40% of New Zealanders over the age of 60 suffer from tinnitus, and that one in 50 New Zealanders suffer tinnitus severe enough to affect their daily lives.
But the really interesting report concerns a University of Otago study of 338 tinnitus suffers, half of whom had tinnitus-related depression. It’s probably no surprise to a tinnitus sufferer that tinnitus causes depression, but it’s almost certainly news to the unafflicted.
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When noise plagues you
February 2006
Voluntarily pumping sound into one’s ears has become commonplace among music lovers in this iPod nation. But imagine walking around with an irritating noise in your ears for 24 hours a day, without being able to shut it off. Such is the plight of people with tinnitus. It’s often described as ringing in the ears, but tinnitus also can manifest as hissing, sizzling or cricketlike chirping, said Ingrid Edwards, an audiologist at The Heuser Hearing Institute in Louisville. The problem may be temporary, such as the ringing that anyone might experience after a loud concert, or it may be chronic. Full Story
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Tinnitus victim not responding to implant
February 2006
Despair is replacing optimism for an Aurora nurse who had hoped a new procedure would stem the ringing in her ears that has made her life a cacophonous misery. Lynn Steinman, 56, has described the ringing as akin to "a kid’s tin whistle blowing in your ear 24 hours a day." "I’m very discouraged," Steinman said last week. "It just isn’t going well. It’s worse than it was before." Steinman, whose tinnitus had grown progressively worse since it first hit 15 years ago, signed up for an experimental trial through the Medical College of Wisconsin. Full Story
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Lives ‘devastated’ by tinnitus
February 2006
Research into the effects of tinnitus – a buzzing or ringing in the ears – shows that it has a profound impact on all aspects of people’s lives. The findings come from work carried out by two leading charities in the field of hearing loss. More than 40% of the 900 surveyed said their condition had a negative effect on their personal relationships. And more than a quarter of those people blamed tinnitus for having a reduced sex drive. Full Story
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Melatonin pills may help ease tinnitus
Melatonin supplements might curb tinnitus, possibly by improving sleep, a new study shows. Melatonin is a hormone made in the brain’s pineal gland. Natural melatonin helps regulate cycles of sleep and wakefulness. Levels of natural melatonin tend to fade with age. Melatonin is also sold as a supplement. People with tinnitus sense ringing, roaring, or humming sounds in their ears. About 15 million people in the U.S. consider their tinnitus to be a significant problem, according to statistics cited in the new study. The study appears in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery. The researchers included Jay Piccirillo, MD, FACS, of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Full Story
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Easing learning with chronic tinnitus
March 2005
Chronic tinnitus may make it harder to master new tasks, but practice could help overcome that hurdle, researchers report. People with tinnitus hear ringing, buzzing, hissing, whistling, or other sounds without any known cause. Tinnitus can be fleeting or constant and vary in loudness. Full story
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Struggling with tinnitus
May 2006
The first hint I had that something was wrong with my hearing was during a long phone conversation. I unwittingly transferred the receiver from my usual left to right ear. Damn, there was a drastic drop in the pitch and the voice from the other end appeared faint and distant. Not able to carry on the conversation, I switched the receiver back to my left and Wow! my hearing was back and clear. This left me with little doubt that everything was not normal with my right ear. Full Story
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Tinnitus: Do you Hear that Ringing Noise?
One February morning in 1984, Judith Schwegman of Carbondale woke up with a ringing sound in her ears and felt dizzy. "My first thought was: How do I stop this?" Schwegman said. After many visits to doctors who specialize in ear problems (otolaryngologists), many tests, and trying various medications, Schwegman still had the ringing in her ears. She has lived with tinnitus for more than twenty years. [. . .] According to the American Academy of Otolaryngology, in the United States nearly 36 million people are dealing with this condition, on a daily basis. For some, this is a nuisance. For others, it is a life-changing condition. Full Story
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Veteran’s Tinnitus Case Goes to Court
December 2006
Disabled American Veterans is petitioning the nation’s highest court to review the Federal Circuit case of Smith v. Nicholson. In that case the court held that veterans with tinnitus, a form of hearing loss, in both ears are not entitled to two separate 10 percent disability ratings. "The government’s response to that petition is presently due to be filed (today)," said Ronald L. Smith, deputy general counsel for veterans claims, in a letter to Vaught. "The Supreme Court will probably decide whether to grant the petition during the first quarter of next year." Full Story
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Sound Advice About Tinnitus Treatment
January 2007
A buzzing or ringing sound that you can hear but other people can’t is known as tinnitus (pronounced tin-NIGHT-us or TIN-it-us). We’ve all experienced this annoying sensation one time or another, usually after hearing a very loud noise. For example, using a snowmobile or lawn mower or attending a loud concert might trigger a brief bout of tinnitus. Ringing is common, but some people also experience relentless buzzing, cricket-like chirping, hissing or humming. Whatever the sound, the distinguishing feature is that it doesn’t have an external cause. Most bouts of tinnitus are brief, but for some sufferers, the condition is prolonged. Men experience tinnitus more often than women. Like so many other conditions, it becomes more common with age. It can occur in one ear or in both. Full Story
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Beta-Carotene and Tinnitus
January 2007
I went ahead and performed a literature search on Vitamin A and tinnitus using the PubMed database of peer reviewed research studies (www.pubmed.org). I found several articles on the topic from the 50s and the 60s but there were not any abstracts listed, so I could not read the results. If Vitamin A would have worked back then, it would be common medical practice for treating tinnitus today. I did find one research study out of a German research journal from the early 80s (Brand, H. (1983) that looked at 96 cased of tinnitus treated with vasodilators and Vitamin A. The treatment method was reported as “unsatisfactory”. Full Story
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Treatments target tinnitus’ constant ring
May 2007
Imagine that you are plagued day and night with terrible ringing, buzzing, or hissing in your ear – a sound that torments you all day, prevents you from falling asleep, and wakes you up when you manage to nod off. It could be enough to drive you to thoughts of suicide. Steve Ratner never had thoughts that black, but he came close when he developed a high-pitched ringing in his ears after an infection in his right ear burst through the ear drum. "When it started (32 years ago), it was so bad, I’d be lying on my back in bed, saying, ‘God, why is this happening to me?’ It was driving me crazy. I couldn’t concentrate on anything." Full Story
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For Those With Hearing Loss, the Noise Can Be Awful
June 2007
The hardest thing I’ve had to come to terms with in the 17 years since my hearing started to fail is not silence but intrusive noises: They ring in my ears, obscure the sounds I want to listen to and startle me when they amplify themselves without warning. There I am, working quietly at my desk, when the knock at my door becomes — Crash! — a tympanic interruption, and I leap to attention. There are times when I want to stand up and yell, "Keep it down!" Full Story
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TRT Effective in Treating Tinnitus
July 2007
Teresa Heitzmann of the University Hospital of Navarre in Spain has recommended TRT (Tinnitus Retraining Therapy) treatment , based on the neurophysiological model, for those suffering from tinnitus. Heitzmann points out that the aim of the treatment is to get the patient to become accustomed to the "noise." To achieve this, therapeutic advice and sound therapy are used. The father of TRT is professor Pawel J. Jastreboff, who has defined tinnitus as a phantom auditory perception perceived only by the person. On applying the neurophysiological model in the university hospital, Heitzmann concluded that getting used to the tinnitus and thereby, achieving the cessation of discomfort, occurred in between 80% and 84% of patients, including, at times, a higher proportion. It is the treatment that has the highest success rate currently, she reports. Full Story
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Progress in explaining tinnitus via brain imaging
August 2007
Some people describe the phantom sounds as so constant and so disabling, they’ve quit their jobs, living almost as shut-ins in a world dominated by ringing, buzzing, hissing or roaring very often only they can hear. The disorder is called tinnitus. And only now, after having languished for decades as an orphan disorder, are dramatic advances being made. Experiments are under way mostly in Europe, using sophisticated imaging techniques that allow doctors to "see" areas in the brain where sound signals are no longer translated – progress that could help doctors target new treatments. Full Story
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Tinnitus: Addressing Neurological, Audiological, and Psychological Aspects with Customized Therapy
August 2007
When tinnitus becomes a constant disturbance rather than just an occasional perception, a comprehensive rehabilitation approach is required that addresses the audiological (hearing loss), neurological (adaptive response/"central gain"), and psychological (attention and reaction) aspects of the condition. By targeting all of these aspects together, a therapy is more likely to provide consistent and rapid improvements in tinnitus awareness and disturbance. This forms the basis for the development of the Neuromonics(r) Tinnitus Treatment. This article describes current thinking about the causes of tinnitus and how the Neuromonics therapy works, and highlights data from current peer-reviewed studies. Full Story
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That ringing in your ears can be caused by many things
Question: Is tinnitus — or ringing in the ear — a disease?
Answer: It’s the most common ear symptom there is. It affects about 36 million people. It’s a symptom because it has a cause. Now the variety of things that can cause people to have noise in their ears is extensive. The most common is because the hearing nerve in the inner ear is not normal. That can be due to age-related hearing loss or damage to the ears as a result of noise exposure. There’s a host of other problems that can contribute to this — ear infections, metabolic problems like high blood pressure, hardening of the arteries, abnormalities of blood flow, medication, or certain kinds of inner ear tumors. Full Story
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Changing Reactions to Tinnitus
August 2007
The first really important thing to know about tinnitus is just how many people have it. About 10% of the adult population has tinnitus-a huge number of people. The next thing to know is that there is a big variation in how people react to tinnitus. Most people with tinnitus get along without being distressed by it. Other people suffering from tinnitus may experience feelings of anxiety or depression. They can become withdrawn or restless. They frequently complain of poor sleep, difficulty in everyday functioning, or a reduced quality of life. Some people feel the need for antidepressants, sleeping pills, or other tranquilizers. . . . Obviously, most people would rather not have tinnitus; however, after an initial stress reaction to it, most carry on leading normal, healthy, fulfilling lives. The majority do not attend tinnitus clinics or require medication. Full Story
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Brain Retraining Promises Aid for Tinnitus
October 2007
The Silverstein Institute in Sarasota tests a promising new treatment for tinnitus. On Bob Neff’s right hip was what looked like a slightly oversized Apple iPod or an MP3 player. The Siesta Key resident had just come from the YMCA, where he looked like one of many listening to some motivational music while working out. With 110 million sold, Apple’s players are ubiquitous at gyms. Neff’s device, though, carries the label Neuromonics, making it by comparison virtually unique. It plays a personally customized mix of music underlaid with noise. Neff is testing it as one of the first patients in a clinical trial for a new treatment for tinnitus, the medical term for ringing in the ears, a condition believed to afflict millions of people. The trial is based at the Silverstein Institute, the Sarasota medical practice focused on treating hearing loss. The institute is home to the Ear Research Foundation, which this fall is running nine clinical trials, including that of Neff’s innocuous device. Full Story
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Music Therapy Shows Promise for Tinnitus Sufferers
November 2007
Timothy Brown, a 55-year-old industrial electrician, didn’t pay much attention to the ringing in his ears he heard occasionally last winter. But, come March, when the high-pitched noise turned nonstop and showed no sign of going away, he suddenly could think of nothing else. "[After] the first few days, I went to the family doctor thinking it was an ear infection," he said. That was ruled out. "It wasn’t a problem, but it lingered two or three weeks and then it became traumatic," Mr. Brown said. His sleep was disrupted; he could no longer tolerate the level of sound generated when his big family of siblings got together. "Traumatic" is a word to which millions of people with the same symptoms — ringing or other noises in the ears not caused by external stimulation — can relate. What they suffer from is a sensation of various and sometimes indeterminate causes called "tinnitus." The American Tinnitus Association estimates 50 million Americans have or have had tinnitus. Of that number, some 12 million seek medical help, and 2 million of them are debilitated by it, experiencing family problems, job problems, sleep problems or even depression. Full Story
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Experimental treatment takes aim against dreadful tinnitus
December 2007
The phantom noises were so dreadfully real and relentless that when he learned of a highly experimental treatment that entailed removing part of the skull, he eagerly signed up. And others have done the same. It’s a pioneering treatment being tried for tinnitus as well as major depression in people who repeatedly have failed conventional therapies. Researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin now have tried the surgery on a handful of tinnitus and depression patients. The treatments seem to be showing some early signs of benefit, even though doctors don’t fully understand how they work. The surgery involves removing part of the skull and placing electrodes on the cerebral cortex and then tunneling under skin and running a wire down to an electrical generator that is implanted under the collarbone. Full Story
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Research lifts hopes for better treatment of tinnitus
January 2008
Tinnitus research has made great strides in the past decade, offering new options for successful management of this sometimes debilitating condition and raising hopes of improved treatments in the near future. Scientists are beginning to gain a better understanding of the causes of tinnitus, which is a big first step toward improving management of the disorder. Already, some new treatments are gaining wider visibility- and respectability-as they demonstrate positive results. And significant progress is being made in imaging techniques and animal studies that hold the promise of better treatments to come. There is even a possibility of pharmacological approaches in the next 5 to 10 years, according to researchers working in this discipline. Other more experimental studies also are ongoing. Full Story
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Overactive Nerves May Account for "Ringing in the Ears"
Editor: I have to admit that this sounds like a pretty bizarre hypothesis to me. But anything that could potentially treat tinnitus is worth pursuing! Here’s the scoop.
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Do your ears ring after a loud concert? Nerves that sense touch in your face and neck may be behind the racket in your brain, University of Michigan researchers say.
Touch-sensing nerve cells step up their activity in the brain after hearing cells are damaged, a study by U-M Kresge Hearing Research Institute scientists shows. Hyperactivity of these touch-sensing neurons likely plays an important role in tinnitus, often called "ringing in the ears." The study, now online in the European Journal of Neuroscience, will appear in the journal’s first January issue.
The research findings were made in animals, but they suggest that available treatments such as acupuncture, if used to target nerves in the head and neck, may provide relief for some people plagued by tinnitus, says Susan E. Shore, Ph.D., lead author of the study and research professor in the Department of Otolaryngology and the Kresge Hearing Research Institute at the U-M Medical School.
People with tinnitus sense ringing or other sounds in their ears or head when there is no outside source. Whether it’s mild and intermittent or chronic and severe, tinnitus affects about one in 10 people. An estimated 13 million people in Western Europe and the United States seek medical advice for it. It is a growing problem for war veterans. Since 2000, the number of veterans receiving service-connected disability for tinnitus has increased by at least 18 percent each year, according to the American Tinnitus Association.
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The Brain Activity Behind Tinnitus Uncovered
January 2008
Tinnitus – hearing phantom sounds – affects millions of people, but because the physiological mechanisms behind the condition are largely unknown, treatment options are limited. Now research published in the online open access journal BMC Biology shows how a method that temporarily (usually for several seconds) reduces tinnitus in some patients links the condition to brain activity. Nina Kahlbrock of the University of Konstanz, Germany and Nathan Weisz of INSERM in Lyon, France investigated the relationship between the tinnitus sensation and spontaneous brain activity. Two techniques called tinnitus masking and residual inhibition involve using a sound that temporarily reduces tinnitus (masking). The effect sometimes continues after the masking sound has stopped (residual inhibition or RI). The researchers used RI to reduce eight sufferers’ tinnitus intensity, in an effect lasting approximately 30 seconds, coupled with source-space projected magnetencephalographic (MEG) data to track their brain activity. Full Story
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Tinnitus, Herbal Supplements & You
February 2008
Recently, James W. Hall III, PhD, from the University of Florida, wrote, "If the average tinnitus patient were managed properly by the first professional they saw, most patients wouldn’t have such severe problems." This statement points up the difficulty of managing tinnitus patients in an age where they are bombarded with advertisements about the latest miracle cure for their health problems. Often, patients may ask about medications they have seen on the Internet or in health food stores. They may bring up questions about vitamins or ask for your input about the help various herbal supplements have promised. But many of the so-called "cures" available on the Internet and elsewhere for tinnitus can be harmful. For instance, if a patient asks you about an eardrop advertised on the Internet, it is safe to advise that no eardrop stops tinnitus. Full Story
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Ringing in Your Ears? It Might Be in Your Jaw
February 2008
People dismiss tinnitus, or a ringing in the ears, as being all in their heads. Maybe it is, but it’s not a figment of the imagination, it’s in the muscles and bones of our jaws. While it is possible it’s just a psychosomatic (i.e. imaginary) effect, you may be experiencing a potentially debilitating condition called TMJ or temporomandibular joint syndrome. TMJS? TMD? MPD? Temporomandibular joint syndrome (TMJS), temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD), and mysofacial pain dysfunction (MPD) are three different names for one set of symptoms.
These symptoms of TMJ/TMD include:
· Headaches
· Jaw pain
· Facial pain
· Sore, chipped, broken or worn teeth
· Unexplained tingling in the arms or hands
In addition to tinnitus. If you have some combination of these symptoms you may be suffering from TMJ/TMD. Full Story
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Somatosensory Neurons May Play Role in Tinnitus Pathogenesis
February 2008
Dorsal cochlear nucleus responses to trigeminal stimulation increase after noise-induced hearing loss, suggesting that somatosensory neurons may play a role in the pathogenesis of tinnitus, according to the findings of a guinea pig study. "Previous studies have linked hyperactivity in the cochlear nucleus (i.e., increased spontaneous firing rates) to tinnitus measured behaviorally," Dr. Susan E. Shore from University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, told Reuters Health. "Our study suggests that the neurons that step up their activity in the cochlear nucleus are those that are activated by somatosensory inputs (especially those from the head and neck region)." Full Story
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The United States Versus Tinnitus
February 2008
The National Institute for Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will look to collaborate together while researching tinnitus. The NIDCD wrote in its report to Congress on the FY 2009 budget that it "and representatives from the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense have been in discussions about their tinnitus research portfolios with the hope of exploring possible research collaborations." "This is exactly what we’ve hoped for. The NIDCD has taken this up and they have taken it very seriously," says Jennifer DuPriest, the director of public affairs at the American Tinnitus Association. Previously, there were no efforts to coordinate research between the different federal government entities that research tinnitus. Efforts to have the various government agencies join forces began to gain traction after Congressional committees supervising the appropriation of funds for government programs made legislative recommendations in 2008 that the NIDCD, VA and DOD increase their collaborative efforts in the fight against tinnitus. Full Story
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Repetitive Transcranial Stimulation May Relieve Tinnitus
March 2008
Daily sessions of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation over the left temporoparietal cortex may be a useful treatment for tinnitus, the results of a preliminary study published in the February issue of the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry suggest. "Treatment of chronic tinnitus is difficult," Dr. Eman M. Khedr, of Assiut University Hospital in Egypt, and colleagues note. "Pharmacotherapy (antidepressants, benzodiazepines), cognitive therapies, or electronic devices that attempt to cancel the tinnitus have all been tried either separately or in combination but the success rate is not high." "Recently, a number of promising reports have appeared, suggesting that repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) might be a possible treatment," the researchers explain. Full Story
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New Therapies Fight Phantom Noises of Tinnitus
April 2008
Often caused by prolonged or sudden exposure to loud noises, tinnitus (pronounced tin-NIGHT-us or TIN-nit-us) is becoming an increasingly common complaint, particularly among soldiers returning from combat, users of portable music players, and aging baby boomers reared on rock ‘n’ roll. (Other causes include stress, some kinds of chemotherapy, head and neck trauma, sinus infections, and multiple sclerosis.) Although there is no cure, researchers say they have never had a better understanding of the cascade of physiological and psychological mechanisms responsible for tinnitus. As a result, new treatments under investigation – some of them already on the market – show promise in helping patients manage the ringing, pinging and hissing that otherwise drives them to distraction. The most promising therapies, experts say, are based on discoveries made in the last five years about the brain activity of people with tinnitus. With brain-scanning equipment like functional magnetic resonance imaging, researchers in the United States and Europe have independently discovered that the brain areas responsible for interpreting sound and producing fearful emotions are exceptionally active in people who complain of tinnitus. "We’ve discovered that tinnitus is not so much ringing in the ears as ringing in the brain," said Thomas J. Brozoski, a tinnitus researcher at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield. Full Story
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Clear talk from renowned tinnitus experts
May 2008
Sedona, AZ-Auricle Ink Publishers announces the release of The Consumer Handbook on Tinnitus (Richard S. Tyler, PhD, Editor). Already this title received a rave review: "Clear talk from renowned tinnitus experts on reducing the devastating impact tinnitus can have on quality of life," says Robert W. Sweetow, PhD. "Great book!" This book was written for patients suffering from tinnitus and is presented without hype and false hopes. Publisher Richard Carmen, AuD, says, "I am very excited about this new release. Dr. Tyler has attracted top contributors from around the world, each writing or co-writing chapters in their specialty area of tinnitus. I think this book will be an important avenue of information for consumers in search of truths about tinnitus treatments as well as discovering how to attain real benefit from self-help techniques. It’s so jam-packed with helpful hints and ideas that I expect readers to be thrilled." Full Story
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Changes in Central Auditory Pathway for Tinnitus Sufferers?
June 2008
A research team led by Helga M. Kehrle, MD, MSc, of the Hospital de Base de Brasília examined 37 people with tinnitus and 38 without tinnitus (ages 20-45) who had puretone thresholds better than 25 dB at 500-8000 Hz. A total of 16 (43%) of the tinnitus group showed abnormalities in the 8 ABR parameters analyzed, with prolonged latencies in waves I, III, and V, as well as a significantly enlarged interpeak III-V. Although the V/I amplitude ratio found in the tinnitus group was within normal limits, a significant difference was found when the two groups were compared. The researchers conclude that "although the averages obtained in several analyzed parameters were within normal limits, the ABR results from the patients with and without tinnitus and normal hearing are different, suggesting that ABR might contribute to the workup of these patients." The data indicates there are changes in the central pathways of the tinnitus group that suggest a need for further investigation. Full Story
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Tinnitus Patients Have a Friend in Zebrafish
July 2008
Professor Ernest Moore hasn’t named the zebrafish in his Northwestern University laboratory, where he researches drugs for tinnitus (ringing of the ears). But if he did, he says, he would name his favorite one Rose, after one of his mentors. "Professor Rose not only trained me in audiology, but taught me not to expect hearing problems to get a lot of attention or funding," recalled Moore. "When you have hearing problems, you’re not bleeding. You look just fine. It is a widespread but hidden problem." Moore should know. He has tinnitus himself, he says, thanks to his childhood hunting expeditions and his years in the military leading to too many guns fired too close to his ears. Now, with a little help from his gilled buddies in the lab, Moore is one step closer to helping fellow tinnitus sufferers with a drug. Later this year, he plans to test his trial drugs on tinnitus patients through clinical trials with physicians. Some of the drugs, he notes, are already on the market for other purposes. Full Story