Tinnitus
Alexander R. Toftness in Incredible Consequences of Brain Injury, 2023
Tinnitus is often thought of as ringing in the ears that occurs after hearing loud noises. However, tinnitus can be caused by a variety of things (e.g., loud noise, infections, brain tumors, a misaligned jaw, etc.) and may take a variety of phantom noise-forms. In an old but fascinating collection of tinnitus noise descriptions, one doctor wrote that the noise may resemble a “bee humming; noise of shell; horse out of breath, puffing; thumping noise; continual beating; crackling sounds in the head … furnace blowing; constant hammering; rushing water … railway whistling; distant thunder; chirping of birds; kettle boiling; waterfall; mill wheel; music; bells” (Jones et al., 1890, p. 668). Thus, pitch, volume, and annoyingness can all vary, with rare forms of tinnitus even resembling low voices or music. You know how annoying it is to be able to hear someone speaking, but to not be able to hear exactly what they are saying? Now imagine that happening all of the time, inside of your brain. There are milder forms of tinnitus from which you generally recover in short order and, as we will see, those cases are the lucky ones. Here, in this particular book, we will be discussing the more severe sort of tinnitus—that is, haunting noise that repeats over and over and over.
Micronutrients in Prevention and Improvement of the Standard Therapy in Hearing Disorders
Kedar N. Prasad in Micronutrients in Health and Disease, 2019
Prolonged exposure to intense noise is known to be a risk factor for hearing loss.47 It is estimated that more than 30 million Americans are exposed to hazardous levels of sound intensity on a regular basis.48 In addition, industrial workers, and troops in training and in combat are exposed to high intensity and vibration. Additional agents that can cause hearing loss include cancer chemotherapeutic agents such as cisplatin, and antibiotics such as gentamicin, diseases such as ear infection (otitis media) and meningitis, MD, trauma, aging, and heredity. Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is the leading cause of infectious-related congenital sensorineural hearing loss worldwide. The CMV inflammatory genes play a significant role in causing hearing loss.49 Age-related hearing loss referred to as Presbycusis is caused by cochlear degeneration that is induced by increased oxidative stress and mutations in mitochondria. Hearing loss progresses very slowly as a function of aging. Causes of tinnitus include blows to the head, large doses of certain drugs, such as aspirin, anemia, hypertension, noise exposure, stress, earwax blockage, and certain types of tumor. Both dominant and recessive genes exist, which can cause mild to severe hearing loss.
Ernesto
Walter J. Hendelman, Peter Humphreys, Christopher R. Skinner in The Integrated Nervous System, 2017
Tinnitus is a sound heard by a person in the absence of an external source for the sound. It is described as a meaningless noise, such as a ringing, buzzing, hissing, clicking, roaring or chirping sound and can be reported in one or both ears; other people cannot hear it. It may be continuous or intermittent and often depends upon the ambient noise level. It is often associated with a hearing loss. Tinnitus can be quite distressing for a person, causing difficulty with concentration and reading and perhaps other tasks; interference with sleep is quite common. Some will react with emotional distress, which may require active treatment. There is some experimental evidence that tinnitus is a central phenomenon due to a reorganization of the primary auditory cortex, associated with diminished intracortical inhibition possibly related with aging.
Comparative study of SSNHL with and without tinnitus: audiologic and hematologic differences
Published in Acta Oto-Laryngologica, 2023
Jung Min Kim, Hwa Sung Rim, Sung Soo Kim, Sang Hoon Kim, Jae Yong Byun, Seung Geun Yeo
The association between reduced afferent drive and increased central activity remains unclear. The activation of neural plasticity caused by hearing loss can alter the balance between inhibition and excitation, leading to an increase in spontaneous neural activity in the central auditory system by decreasing the afferent drive of auditory impulses. For neural plasticity to occur, there must be central activation and a reduction in the imbalance between inhibition and excitation. [4] Tinnitus is almost always triggered by hearing loss, but some patients with hearing loss do not present with symptoms of tinnitus. While certain studies have indicated that particular audiometric patterns are linked to tinnitus, [5] other studies have produced conflicting findings. There is uncertainty about the impact of tinnitus on the prognosis of individuals with hearing loss, but recent research has suggested a possible correlation between the existence of tinnitus and improved therapeutic outcomes. [5]
EEG signal classification of tinnitus based on SVM and sample entropy
Published in Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering, 2023
Mai Jianbiao, Wang Xinzui, Li Zhaobo, Liu Juan, Zhang Zhongwei, Fu Hui
Subjective tinnitus is a disease with a high prevalence and low cure rate, and its treatment is a worldwide challenge (Langguth et al. 2013). The prevalence of tinnitus increases with age (Nondahl et al. 2012), 12% to 30% of people experience tinnitus, 10-15% of people struggle with tinnitus for a long time (Silvano et al. 2015). 2% of them had their quality of life compromised, Severe cases may be associated with distress, worry, anxiety, depression, cognitive dysfunction, insomnia, stress and emotional exhaustion (Axelsson and Ringdahl 1989). The main clinical treatments for tinnitus are psychological counselling, behavioural cognitive therapy, dietary supplements, medication, masking therapy and habituation therapy, surgery and hearing aids (Shuo-Ying and Tian-Hong 2019). To date, no medical, neurological or neuropsychological therapy has been proven to be a universal cure for tinnitus (Roberts et al. 2012). This lack of standard methods of treatment can be considered as clear evidence of, demonstrates that subjective tinnitus is an unusually dynamic and complex phenomenon, diagnosis and treatment is a challenge. At this stage there is no objective and rapid way to diagnose, even no universal medicine or treatment.
The positive side of living with tinnitus: a cross-sectional study
Published in International Journal of Audiology, 2023
Jeremy Loughlin, Vedas Das, Vinaya Manchaiah, Eldre Beukes, Gerhard Andersson, Giriraj Singh Shekhawat
Tinnitus is a common condition that is defined as a perceived sensation of sound in the absence of an external stimulus (Hesser et al. 2011). Tinnitus may be experienced as a buzzing, tonal, hissing, or ringing sound (or combined sounds), and can be intermittent, pulsatile, or continuous (Bhatt, Lin, and Bhattacharyya 2016). Epidemiologic studies estimate that among the US population, as many as one in ten adults are affected by tinnitus (Bhatt, Lin, and Bhattacharyya 2016). Tinnitus can be intrusive, persistent and debilitating, resulting in sleep deprivation as well as a functional impairment in cognition, emotional regulation, hearing, and concentration (Hesser et al. 2011). The relationship between tinnitus and increased risk of depression, anxiety, and insomnia have been identified but are not fully understood (Hesser et al. 2011). Patients with major depressive disorder or generalised anxiety disorder are up to 3 times as likely to report tinnitus (Salazar et al. 2019). At present, there is no cure for most forms of tinnitus and spontaneous resolution is rare, especially in chronic forms (Holmes and Padgham 2009). Tinnitus is a significant problem affecting considerable numbers of people worldwide, providing both a social and economic demand for an intervention (Holmes and Padgham 2009). As mainstream therapeutic options are often ineffective, evidence-based psychological interventions, such as cognitive behaviour therapy, should be considered (Ghosh and Deb 2017).
Related Knowledge Centers
- Depression
- Hearing Loss
- Fight-Or-Flight Response
- Noise-Induced Hearing Loss
- Presbycusis
- Otitis
- Cardiovascular Disease
- Ménière'S Disease
- Brain Tumor
- Temporomandibular Joint Dysfunction