Has there been any advancement in treatments for Tinnitus?

[drittz78]

For such a common problem that is horrific for some it seems that there isn't much advancement in treatments. Am I wrong on this?

[DR650SE]

Please let me know if you find out !!!

[perlcoder]

Hi drittz78

As I (just a layman and long term sufferer), understand it, there have been no proven advances in the form of drugs / devices / surgeries.

Psychological strategies (CBT, TRT, Meditation), supported by short-term use of certain drugs / hearing aids / sophisticated maskers including sound therapy more or less precisely tailored to the needs of the recipient, are better now than they used to be and help many sufferers, particularly if they seek treatment at onset.

[TinnitusUKPat Partner]

Hi Drittz

You're not wrong - tinnitus is a common enough condition that movement towards effective treatments seems like it should have happened by now.

The problem has historically been that tinnitus is very much a moving target - therapies which work for one section of the community have no real effect on others: Many people's tinnitus is interlinked with hearing loss and treating that helps. For other people, hearing loss is negligible. CBT might help in that situation, if tinnitus is felt to be invasive or distressing.

If you do a quick and unscientific search on the Clinical Trials.Gov database you'll find a total of 29 currently recruiting studies into tinnitus treatments - clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/resu.... If you look at recently finished or not yet enrolling studies, that total goes up to nearly 300 studies.

Look at hearing loss/hearing impairment on the other hand - clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/resu... and you get around 959 studies. Seems like a lot, but it's not really - it shows that the overall area of sensory illnesses is underfunded, because very little in it points to a quick win and return on investment.

By comparison, there are 22569 studies on the same Clinical Trials database for heart disease and 18334 looking at diabetes (a common symptom of which can be hearing loss and tinnitus...).

There is a lot of recognition - the World Health Organisation have been doing a good job of building awareness about the hastening crisis in global hearing - that more and more people are going to be affected by hearing loss and tinnitus in the next couple of decades, and at a younger age than before too.

Why that doesn't translate into more funding for research into treatments and remedial therapies is anyone's guess.

[drittz78 in reply to TinnitusUKPat]

It's really appalling as the stats are eye watering for those dealing with tinnitus. Mine is usually ok but over the last few days has amplified to the point of background noise is sometimes not enough.

[ViHayhurst in reply to TinnitusUKPat]

Appalling, yes. Perhaps like "chronic pain" if Tinnitus was treated like a condition other than a symptom that would help!

[Shells1]

I watched a video with Dr Ben Thomson who talked about research OTO 313 FXR 322 OXYTOCIN NASEL SPRAY AND LENIVE.I'm going to ask my doctor about the nasal spray. Diazipan don't help 1 a day did but 5 don't!