Acupuncture Treatment for Tinnitus 'Ringing in the Ears'

[Rolfe]

Absolutely. TRT is the way to go.

Rolfe.

 

[Kaylee]

I used to suffer from pretty severe tinnitus - what helped more than anything was a form of TRT (tinnitus retraining therapy...) - where you basically have to learn to pay less attention to it. It was a mixture of stress reduction techniques and bio-feedback (eg noting that increased blood flow after exercise or stress seemed to make it worse, so then acting to reduce this....) that worked for me.

I think there's a significant negative cycle going on - you have pain/discomfort - so you pay more attention to it, and then notice it more, then get stressed/depressed about it, then start fearing things that might trigger it, which causes more stress etc etc etc.....

Learning to pay less attention to it has worked for me also. I have had tinnitus, along with my hearing loss, since I was a small child and just took this approach on my own. So it's called tinnitus retraining therapy? Snazzy name.

I know several people with hearing loss and tinnitus is often a frequent side effect. The ones I know of who don't have a problem with tinnitus have taken this approach also. (ETA: Just to be clear -- they still have tinnitus, they just don't have a problem with it.)

Sometimes tinnitus can be an indication that a recently prescribed drug is ototoxic. Or it can be an indicator that one has a tumor on one of their auditory nerves. So, if someone were to get tinnitus all of a sudden I would urge them to look into it and not take the "ignore it" or TRT approach right away.

A good audiologist can run a battery of tests and about two of those tests can help diagnose whether one has tumors, it may not be necc. to take an MRI to rule this out.

FWIW, if there's any change in ones hearing, including tinnitus or not, I would urge one to look into it. It's important to rule out certain causes as early as possible, even if they are rare -- just in case.


As for the OP, I think acupuncture has been discredited in double-blind testing. If anyone thinks they are getting benefits from acupuncture for tinnitus or anything else, it's probably due to the placebo effect as already mentioned upthread by several posters.

 

[andyandy]

I have to say that my experience of the nhs re my tinnitus was pretty poor. There was no mention of TRT by anyone - either specialists or GPs - and there was no mention of pain clinics. Both specialists simply did a hearing test to confirm no hearing loss, and that apparently was their job done. The GPs were content that their job was done after referal to those specialists.....

I've said this before on other threads, but we are so bad at supporting chronic pain conditions (as my tinnitus was). It needs a referal to a chronic pain specialist as a matter of course - or failing that for our GPs to be trained as specialists in this field (given their large contact with chronic pain sufferers....)

what we have instead is a GP as referer and specialist as physical examiner, with bugger all support for the human side of living with chronic pain (stress, depression, etc)

 

[Rolfe]

I had BUPA and made my GP refer me to Jonathan Hazell. He's retired now but someone else has taken over his practice. He was beating his head against a brick wall trying to get the NHS to take the TRT concept on board. He said that if he could get hold of patients when they first presented he could often make it go away entirely. However, by the time patients had been through the mill of his ENT colleagues mismanaging them, the problem was a lot more deepseated.

Interestingly, he said that in the past when the psychologists dealt with tinnitus patients they didn't do too badly, but once the ENT departments had claimed them for their own things went precipitously downhill. I know what he means because I know an ENT surgeon who simply hasn't been listening, and he just sneers at the whole thing as woo.

And the daft thing is, TRT is dirt cheap. You can train ancillary staff to do it, it doesn't need a consultant surgeon! But no, it's been denounced as woo, so that's that.

Rolfe.

 

[andyandy]

I had BUPA and made my GP refer me to Jonathan Hazell. He's retired now but someone else has taken over his practice. He was beating his head against a brick wall trying to get the NHS to take the TRT concept on board. He said that if he could get hold of patients when they first presented he could often make it go away entirely. However, by the time patients had been through the mill of his ENT colleagues mismanaging them, the problem was a lot more deepseated.

Interestingly, he said that in the past when the psychologists dealt with tinnitus patients they didn't do too badly, but once the ENT departments had claimed them for their own things went precipitously downhill. I know what he means because I know an ENT surgeon who simply hasn't been listening, and he just sneers at the whole thing as woo.

And the daft thing is, TRT is dirt cheap. You can train ancillary staff to do it, it doesn't need a consultant surgeon! But no, it's been denounced as woo, so that's that.

Rolfe.

I think this is a microcosm of the problem any non-physical treatment (counselling, meditation, TRT, stress-relief techniques, etc etc) faces in the NHS - either people do take it seriously but there's no provision, or they are too segmented to their own physical speciality that dealing with the mind is "someone else's role...."

It's pretty disgraceful really, countless patients are being let down - when cheap, non-invasive techniques could have a significant impact on their quality of life. Unfortunately no-one seems to care enough for it to be their problem.

Latest study on TRT (Ear Hear. 2011 Mar-Apr;32(2):145-55.

Effect of tinnitus retraining therapy on the loudness and annoyance of tinnitus: a controlled trial.) :

RESULTS: : Both TRT and general counseling without additional sound therapy are effective in reducing the annoyance and impact of tinnitus. The largest effect on overall tinnitus handicap was observed in the TRT participants, with an effect size of 1.13. However, a clinically significant effect was also observed in the control group, with an effect size of 0.78.

CONCLUSIONS: : Individuals with moderate to severe tinnitus, without hearing loss in the speech frequency range, benefit from treatment with either TRT or general counseling. The global improvement in tinnitus handicap with TRT accrues over an 18-mo period and seems to be a robust and clinically significant effect.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20890204

It's a shame none of the doctors I spoke to had even heard of it.....(or didn't think it was worth mentioning if they had.)

 

[Emet]

And the daft thing is, TRT is dirt cheap. You can train ancillary staff to do it, it doesn't need a consultant surgeon! But no, it's been denounced as woo, so that's that.

Rolfe.

I did a quick search. In the US, it is not generally covered by insurance. And appears to cost $2-3000.

 

[NoahFence]

I've had acupuncture for tinnitus myself, to no avail. Although the woman doing it was SMOKING, so there's that.

In order for me to not hear the ringing, the outside noise has to be at or above 95db. Ouch.