Short Term Effect of Mixed Tinnitus Retraining Therapy

Chung, Sung Won; Suh, Myung Whan

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
The long-term effect of tinnitus retraining therapy (TRT) is excellent while its short-term effect is known to be inferior to tinnitus making (TM). In this regard, we mixed TRT (mTRT) by combining TRT and TM to improve the short-term effect of TRT. This study evaluated the short-term effect of the mTRT and also compared the clinical efficacy between mTRT and TM.
SUBJECTS AND METHOD
Twenty patients who underwent mTRT due to chronic subjective tinnitus were included in this study. Sound therapy of the mTRT was performed with mixed noise of broadband noise and narrow band noise. The broadband noise was used for TRT and the narrow band noise was used for TM. During the first month of mTRT, sound therapy was mainly composed of narrow band noise. During the second month, the proportion of broadband noise was gradually increased to 2/3. After 3 months, only the broadband noise was applied. Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI), Visual Analog Scale (VAS) on annoyance and the tinnitus awareness duration (hr/day) was checked as the outcome measures. The outcome was also compared between mTRT and TM.
RESULTS
The THI score decreased significantly from 41.8+/-24.3 to 27.3+/-25.6 after mTRT. The VAS (from 5.9+/-1.4 to 4.7+/-1.8) and the tinnitus awareness duration (from 18.5+/-8.2 to 12.6+/-10.7) also showed a significant improvement after treatment. When the treatment outcome was compared between mTRT and TM, there was no significant difference.
CONCLUSION
mTRT seems to be effective in relieving the discomfort of tinnitus. Similar short-term outcomes can be expected from mTRT as they did in TM.