The AudioNotch Tinnitus Treatment Blog

Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation is a treatment that has been tested for tinnitus. There has been some promising literature with guided rTMS in the past. In the procedure, a magnet is used to modify neurons non-invasively, by holding it over a patient’s head. The technology has been used to treat depression.

A recent randomized controlled trial (considered the most high quality type of experiment) has shown that rTMS is not effective for tinnitus treatment:

Results: At none of the follow-up evaluation moments a significant difference between rTMS and placebo was observed with respect to changes in TQ or THI scores relative to pretreatment scores. Multilevel modelling (MLM) analyses did not show a global treatment effect either. Patients with a higher degree of burden showed slightly greater improvement after rTMS (only significant on the THI with MLM analyses). Conclusion: Bilateral low-frequency rTMS of the auditory cortex was not effective in treating tinnitus.