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Posted on 08/30/2022 12:24:01 PM PDT by Red Badger
An experimental digital therapy for tinnitus based on counselling and personalised passive and active game-based sound therapy has showed some encouraging results in a randomised clinical trial in New Zealand.
The UpSilent prototype, developed by researchers at the University of Auckland, consisted of a smartphone app, Bluetooth bone conduction headphones and neck pillow speaker and a cloud-based dashboard that clinicians can use to enable messaging and personalise the digital treatment.
It was compared in the study to an already-available free app – TMSOFT’s White Noise Lite – which is described by the researchers as “a popular self-help passive sound therapy app.”
The head-to-head comparison was carried out in around 60 subjects recruited at a tinnitus support meeting – split roughly equally between the UpSilent and White Noise groups – over 12 weeks.
At the end of follow-up there was a higher proportion of responders with the prototype, measured using the Tinnitus Functional Index (TFI) symptom scale.
A statistically higher proportion of UpSilent users achieved a clinically meaningful, 13-point or greater reduction in TFI scores at six weeks (55%) and 12 weeks (65%), compared to the active control app (33% and 43%, respectively).
The prototype was no better than the comparator on other measures, including patient rating scales and the Client Oriented Scale of Improvement in Tinnitus (COSIT) scale, but was found to be just as usable as the free app. The results have just been published in the journal Frontiers in Neurology.
“This is more significant than some of our earlier work and is likely to have a direct impact on future treatment of tinnitus,” said Auckland University associate professor in audiology Grant Searchfield, who co-authored the paper on the study with research fellow Phil Sanders.
“What this therapy does is essentially rewire the brain in a way that de-emphasises the sound of the tinnitus to a background noise that has no meaning or relevance to the listener,” he added.
The next step will be to refine the prototype and proceed to larger local and international trials with a view to FDA approval, according to the researchers/ They hope the app will be clinically available in around six months.
Other groups have tried to tackle tinnitus using digital health interventions. Last month, UK startup Oto raised £2.8 million ($3.3 million) in seed financing to further develop an app that provides a series of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), mindfulness, physician exercise and relaxation techniques designed to help people limit the effects of tinnitus.
Another approach has been taken by TinniTracks, whose digital therapy app applies an algorithm that the company says can transform music patients are listening to into a neuro-acoustic therapy, provided a patient’s tinnitus frequency is known.
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The app – which is reimbursable in Germany – filters a patient’s individual tinnitus frequency from the music, reducing stimulation of hyperactive nerve cells in the brain’s auditory centre linked to the disorder.
CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?......................
RING!........................
I hope this works out. I have pretty good hearing but I haven’t experienced silence in years.
Tinnitus has value?
I run the overhead fan to drown out the tinnitus noise.
It’s like Grand Central Station.
“Tinnitus has value?”
Only so you can ignore the missus.
Me, either. Too many hours behind an unmuffled lawn mower, gun shots, fireworks, power plants, machine shops...you name it, I did it. And nobody said “you’ll ruin your hearing.”
Fortunately, I think I rewired my own brain without an app. The only time I’m really aware of my tinnitus is when I read articles like this! Then it’s like an ear worm I cannot get rid of.
we know this principal works...
“My son has tinnitus...a result of Chemo. “
I got mine from a medication that got pulled for killing people. The doctor told me ‘you’ll just have to get used to it’.
for YEARS i just turned the radio to static at low volume to get to sleep
They used to have “white noise” generators, and the sufferer would adjust the generator noise output till the tinnitus was almost extinguished, then a CD was burned...nowadays one could use a tinnitus cancelling sound file on your smartphone..playing to blue tooth earplugs.Regeneration of the malfunctioning hair cells in the cochlea is a hot bit of research.
Mine sounds like the flyback in old CRT tube type TVs. High pitched. I usually ignore it but I’d love to get rid of it.
Certain drugs make it much worse.
I ignore mine most of the time too but I would love to not ever notice it at all! I have no idea why I have it, I haven’t spent a lot of time in noisy environments.
since it’s phantom sound, i’m surprised it can be attenuated
“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE….”
I could separate 3 different noises all going at once-
a high pitched tone, another I can’t put into words, like a musical tone going up and down the scale, and a “white noise” behind it all.
Sometimes it sounds like a broken car horn in the distance.
My hearing aids really don’t help much.
Fun…
surprised it can be attenuated
By flooding the brain with other things to ‘hear’
EEEEE….
How did you record that sound in my right ear?? It’s different in my left ear:
eeeeeEEEEeeeeeEEEEeeee…
ok, replacement/overload not cancellation
We must be audially connected…🙂
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