The AudioNotch Tinnitus Treatment Blog

Give it a read and check it out!

The pathway for veterans developing tinnitus is relatively simple: exposure to environmental noise from explosions, gunfire – even engines – damages their hearing and causes tinnitus.
But Jarom has found one hill he cannot conquer: the incessant ringing in his ears. It’s called tinnitus — or tinnitus.

For him, it began with a scene like this in Iraq. On five separate occasions, he came dangerously close to powerful explosions that left his ears ringing.

A review of the available evidence came to the conclusion that there is some evidence that hearing aids can help in the management of tinnitus, however, more research needs to be done in order to reach definitive conclusions. Hearing aids are oftentimes used in the management of tinnitus because they are
Results: Although the quality of evidence for hearing aids’ effect on tinnitus is not strong, the weight of evidence (17 research studies for, 1 against) suggests merit in using hearing aids for tinnitus management. Conclusions: The majority of studies reviewed support the use of hearing aids fortinnitus management. Clinicians should feel reassured that … Continue Reading

It’s interesting to approach stories on tinnitus with the background knowledge of the science on the subject. The topic of habituation has proven to an important one – simply put, habituation is the process whereby the brain adapts to the tinnitus tone and stops reacting in a negative emotional way – essentially, the anxiety and stress caused by the sound go away, and all that remains is the sound itself.

Consider the case of Roger Taylor, the guitarist from Queen. Read his anecdote, and you’ll see that in modifying his mental attitude towards tinnitus, he was able to remove … Continue Reading

Anyone passingly familiar with the tinnitus treatment space knows that there is a high prevalence of treatments that are not based on scientific evidence, or are simply outright frauds. This high prevalence of bogus treatments is attributable to the fact there there is no present tinnitus cure, and fraudsters attempt to fill the demand for a “total cure” product. Sometimes this deception escalates into outright fraud, as is the case here:

Fraudster conned pensioner with tinnitus out of £3,000 by persuading him to pay for a miracle cure that didn’t exist

• Cruel conman claimed he had been cured of the … Continue Reading
  

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 … Continue Reading

We’ve posted on a similar tinnitus study in the past linking neuroticism as a personality trait to tinnitus. Now, a new press article summarizes some of the findings in a more accessible framework:
People with ‘neurotic’ tendencies are more likely to be troubled by their tinnitus, a new study involving researchers at The University of Nottingham, has found.
The research, led by academics at the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Nottingham Hearing Biomedical Research Unit, found that those who were lonely, worried or anxious, miserable or experiencing mood swings … Continue Reading

A user of ours, Scott Lauder, has a background in UI design. He sent us some great feedback, along with a UI wireframe mockup, of how we could further improve our tuner application. Thanks Scott!
Today as I was using the “find your tone” interface, I found myself not completely confident of the tone I was locking in on, and the reason? I found that the process of of bouncing from Play, the tone Hz slider, then Stop to discontinue sound..felt like almost too much of a distraction to my ears…yes I understand how that sounds. I … Continue Reading

AudioNotch has written a guest article on the DJ Tech Tools blog about tinnitus treatments. Check it out!

There is plenty of anecdotal evidence that tinnitus causes increased sleep latency and insomnia. What’s surprising to me is this recent study, which seems to suggest that tinnitus patients may suffer from disruption of multiple  sleep stages, including a significant reduction in REM sleep:
All tinnitus patients had a statistically significant alteration in sleep stages. Average percentage of stage 1 + stage 2 was 85.4% ± 6.3, whereas, in the control group, the average percentage of stage 1 + stage 2 was 54.9 ± 11.2 (p < 0.001). Stages 3 and 4 and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep was lacking in … Continue Reading

Some individuals are fairly excited about the new research being done on Vagal Nerve Therapy. My current understanding is that this involves playing paired auditory tones with vagal nerve stimulation, in an effort to reverse the neuroplastic changes that occur from tinnitus. This firm has released a press release indicating that they are continuing to acquire successful funding to acquire clinical trials.
The Serenity® System is a neurostimulation based system with a small implanted battery and wires that internally connect to the vagus nerve in the neck. As part of the therapy, the patient … Continue Reading