Having bothersome, chronic tinnitus is not fun. Currently there is no approved therapy, that is reducing tinnitus loudness. All available interventions are focusing on reducing impact of tinnitus for patients life. However, you must know that never in history research was so advanced like today. There is definitely hope on the horizon, and you should always be up to date with research news. Patients guide described below, should be regarded as a proposal for attitude towards condition. Before you’ll get to know following facts, you should definitely perform standard medical evaluation and treatments.
Don’t expect doctors to remove your tinnitus
Unfortunately in majority of cases doctors currently are not able to make your tinnitus disappear. This leads to patient`s frustration and unpleasant situation in doctors’ offices. In addition to that very often doctors are communicating in a way that is causing additional stress to patient. Phrases like “get used to it”, “there is no cure”, “there is nothing more we can do”, “Don’t be a hypochondriac” happens because your medical providers are lacking understanding and knowledge. Usually your GP or ENT obtained knowledge many years ago, when tinnitus research was light years away behind current theories. What is making situation worse, is the fact that in general doctors are not interested and are not following tinnitus research. It has practical reason. Following up with their research takes a lot of effort and time. There are many more attractive (from their point of view ) activities, that they would rather spent their time on. They prefer to learn about conditions that are treatable. Such kind of approach is better for their careers and brings more money to the table. However this leaves patient on his own. Therefore you are the one, who should be following up tinnitus research.
Being up-to-date with the research can lessen your suffering…. or make it worse
Its good to know whats cooking. As stated before- never in history research was so advanced. Old theories, stating, that tinnitus originates in the ear, can be thrown to trash. If your doctor says that- he has no recognition of the news. Walk away from him! For last 10 years we know reason of our suffering lays in the brain. There are few research focusing on different parts of the brain. The most promising says it starts in Dorsal Cochlear Nucleus. Your best place to be updated is following site of our friends from tinnitus talk: https://www.tinnitustalk.com/forums/research-news.4/
Our advice for research divers:
– It is good to be updated. Knowledge brings hope and peace. However, it is easy to hyper-focus on reading and thinking about hypothetical cures. Hyper focus can lead to worsening of the psychological distress caused by tinnitus. It might almost make your tinnitus louder (well at least your subjective loudness perception). It is reasonable to manage your time spent on surfing resources. Do it 1h per week, or 3h per month etc. Find your sweet spot. Be informed, but not over-stimulated.
– Beware of gloomy sufferers. Even on the threads, that basically are positive (cause they inform about very promising methods), you will find a lot of negativity. Don’t pay attention. Don’t spend much time. Apply approach described above.
Hope
Ok. Let`s get to the shit. From our point of view currently most promising research is led by Dr. Suzan Shore. We will not discuss details, cause you will be able to dive into professionally prepared media materials. What we can bring to table are following facts:
- Research is being proceed for 20 years circa.
- There have been two double-blinded, randomized and cross-over clinical trial performed. No treatment ever achieved such success in studies.
- Our organization consulted trial documents with few researches in Poland. They all agreed, that quality of the study is stunning.
- Constantly new conducted by other researches) confirms, that tinnitus is originated in Dorsal Cochlear Nucleus. This proves Dr. Shore`s model is correct.
Currently treatment is in the stage of FDA approval in USA. Commercialization is supposed to happen after that. Unfortunately, there is no timeline presented for device to be launched commercially. All we can do it wait… in a meantime we encourage you to get familiar with the following artefacts:
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2805515