Tinnitus Masking Effects Using Various Kinds of Sound and Music

Moon, In Hee; Lee, Kyung Soo; Han, Young Hun; Sung, Ji Young; Choi, Ik Su; Park, Jae Yeong; Chang, Chin Soon; Jun, Byung Hoon

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Even though various methods have been tried to diagnose and treat tinnitus, researchers have fallen short of providing the accurate characteristics since most tinnitus are presented as a subjective symptom. A few researchers have tried to assimilate tinnitus using computer and music synthesizers, however, their efforts have not yet been developed as generalized treatment modalities. In this study, we attempted to induce not only tinnitus masking but also psychological stability with various kinds of sound and music and to analyse its treatment effects. The aim of this study is to make a step toward developing tinnitus treatment. MAERIALS AND METHODS: The subjects were 28 patients with constant tinnitus, who visited the otolaryngology department of Seoul Paik Hospital, Medical College of Inje University from June to December of 1997. We tried to objectify the tinnitus as close to the actual sound as possible by synthesizing the modulation of the broad band noises and recording not only the existing pure tones and broad band noises but also the natural and artificial sounds which the patients could easily hear from their surroundings. And then we tried to mask tinitus with various natural, artificial and synthetic sounds, including its frequency band. We also let them hear the tapes for contemplation and various music.
RESULTS
The results were as follows. 1) As for the quality of tinnitus, 13 patients reported similarity to the pure tone (46.4%), seven to narrow band noise (25%), eight to natural environmental sounds (21.4%), one each to artificial environmental sound and white noise (3.6%) and no one to synthetic sound. 2) The sound that masked tinnitus well was three octave broad band noise including the tinnitus frequency. 3) Twenty four patients (85.7%) chose music as the most comfortable sound to listen to. 4) Three patients (10.7%) replied that their tinnitus were decreased in amplitude and 15 patients (53.6%) reported that it was easier to stand the tinnitus even though their tinnitus persisted.
CONCLUSION
Based on these results, it can be concluded that music therapy provides psycological stability in addtion to inducing masking effect, even though it can't directly decrease nor completely remove tinnitus. Thus we believe that a more effective result can be obtained if music therapy is implemented on a gradual basis as a part of the whole treatment process.