New Tinnitus Treatment

Simply put, tinnitus, also called "ringing in the ears" or "head noise," is the perception of sound in the ears or head where no external source is present. It affects about 17 percent of Americans, often without an apparent cause. Those who suffer from tinnitus describe hearing different sounds such as ringing, crickets, whooshing, pulsing, ocean waves, buzzing, dial tones, and even music. And many experience this "ringing in the ears" 24 hours a day, seven days a week, causing sleep problems, emotional distress, as well as other problems. However, a new therapy may not only reduce tinnitus loudness, but prevent its return over time.

For the study conducted at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), a single patient was tested to determine the safety and viability of using low-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in maintenance sessions to lessen or eliminate tinnitus and possibly prevent its return. While TMS has previously shown short-term effectiveness in European studies, this study is the first to introduce it as a maintenance therapy in which patients receive an initial course of treatment and follow-ups, if symptoms persist. The goal of the study is to inhibit excessive neural activity, which is believed to cause tinnitus.

TMS involves placing a coil on the scalp. This coil creates a magnetic field over the brain's surface, which penetrates up to two or three centimeters from the surface of the coil. The magnetic field produces an electric current that either activates or inhibits neural activity. "We use a PET scan of the patient's brain to look for excessive neural activity with increased blood flow in the temporal lobe. Then we target that area with low-frequency TMS to inhibit the neural activity and decrease the tinnitus," said Mark Mennemeier, Ph.D., associate professor of neurobiology and director of the Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Laboratory in the Center for Translational Neuroscience (CTN) at UAMS who conducts the treatment study and evaluates its effectiveness.

Mennemeier said that after three rounds of maintenance therapy, the patient reported no side effects and none were detected in formal assessments. And four months after his final round of maintenance therapy, the patient "reported his tinnitus to be unobtrusive in his daily life."

This initial treatment study, published in the July issue of The Laryngoscope, was the collaborative effort of Mennemeier and John Dornhoffer, M.D., a professor of otology/neurotology at UAMS and a clinician/scientist in the CTN. Dornhoffer evaluates the patients for entry into the study and also holds the grant from the Tinnitus Research Consortium that funds the research.

To find out more about tinnitus, its causes and treatments, visit the American Tinnitus Association website at http://www.ata.org/index.php.