Sound Options Tinnitus Sound Therapy

Good to see that the wheel is spinning at last

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/repo...heard-sufferers-cry-for-help/article24675852/

 

Another sound therapy just like all the others.

 

Well this is another sound therapy, it's quite easy to setup. Why are they only using classical music ? I don't really get it, it's going to be hard for them because of the typical skeptical tinnitus patient for sure, as said in the article

their website looks like bull by the way...

 

Clinically Validated Tinnitus Treatment Gets FDA Clearance

 

I suppose anything is better then nothing. Worth a try what have we got to lose our tinnitus I hope.

 

I wonder how much it costs? I looked into the Levo System awhile back and it was priced over $5,000, not something I can afford, and not covered by insurance.

 

Costs $400 CAD.

 

Has anyone tried this therapy? Looks like they have a randomized blinded trial that came out... as long as it is $400 and not $5000 I am willing to give this a try.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27838685

 

I'm considering it. I live near Hamilton, where Sound Options is based. I'm desperate for anything and it seems kind of reasonable.

 

Please... Anyone who has tried or is familiar with it, report back. At that price I think I would be a patient. I love going to Canada, a nice 7 hour drive.

 

A week before I purchased sound clips (they call it HTFS) from healtone for otosclerosis and tinnitus. They are not much costly and affordable for me. Since I am using it, only change I observed is much less vertigo after tiring day and feel relax. But I am desperately looking my tinnitus to go away. If not then may be I will have to go through an operation in a month.

 

What does your tinnitus sound like, and do you have sensorineural losses in addition to conductive losses?

 

I met with an audiologist who works with Sound Options here in Canada. He quoted me that 40% of tinnitus sufferers report complete reduction of their tinnitus, and 60% it reduces to the point where it doesn't bother them anymore. He advised it'a an intensive sound therapy and you need to commit two hours a day to it, and users report success after a year's worth of therapy. The trick currently is to see if people need to commit even longer after a year to maintain results.


As well, he told me personally since my tinnitus is still fairly new (two and a half months in), he wants me to give it time first before I decide to try it, as my hearing test came back fine, and he believes it could go away on its own...

 

A 0% failure rate, i.e. it works on everyone? (assuming the statement was talking about 2 disjoined sets in statistics, not that the 40% was included in the 60%, because that would have been phrased differently)

 

He only quoted me those numbers. And as my tinnitus was blaring during the conversation, I wasn't thinking right and didn't ask proper follow-up questions. But he did tell me that they've had "good" success, not great or flawless. I also first received an e-mail initially indicating it's only beneficial for certain types of tinnitus, tonal ringing hissing or buzzing-As well, as he actually wanted me to give it some time, I didn't get the impression he was just trying to sell me something.

 

@RonnieCarzatto

Most sound therapies are just adequate for partial masking and habituation. A few of them claim that they can go beyond and correct tinnitus, but I have heard of very few success cases. There is ACRN, notch therapy, SoundCure, etc... that to start with are only for tonal, and mostly <8 kHz tinnitus. The reality is that tinnitus and hearing and have a very narrow intersection and basically are two very different neuronal networks. Don't expect much from Sound Therapy (or from anything).

Also you say that your hearing test come back normal, that means little more than you do not need hearing aids. The audiometry tests at most clinics are totally outdated (same as they were run 30 years ago): they sample very few frequencies, and leave out anything above 8 kHz. A lot of people with head injury get sensorineural hearing loss above 8 kHz that is the most delicate region of the cochlea affected by the shockwave of the injury, but with the dated tests one will think that the hearing is perfect and there is no damage.

What is your estimated tinnitus frequency? That will give you a good idea of the damaged area.

 

http://soundoptions.ca/

These guys are backed by the Ontario Brain Institute - and they're the real deal. As a native Ontarian I'll be looking into this for sure depending on everthing else pans out.

 

I didn't know about them and explored their website. I do recommend a bit of caution. I want them to succeed for obvious reasons, but I can't help but notice a few red flags. Their offering is backed by one study (fairly recent, which is nice) which has the following characteristics:

1. It uses proprietary software, which makes it virtually impossible to replicate the study independently
2. There is an important conflict of interest stated at the end of the study:
   • "Shelly-Anne Li and Michael Chrostowski are affiliated with Sound Options Tinnitus Treatments Inc. and therefore have conflicts of interest. "
3. The measured outcomes are highly subjective/psychological: they are TFI and THI questionnaire scores, which are "Questionnaires aimed at evaluating the impact of tinnitus on a person’s daily life.".
4. Loudness is not measured as an outcome, in spite of being the factor that should be affected by physiological changes in the hearing apparatus as the result of the treatment, as well as the factor that should be the least subjective to measure. Changes in TFI and THI are great, but not seeing loudness being measured makes me wonder whether it was a deliberate choice to leave it out: if you're going to set up a whole infrastructure to do proper study, it seems like a tiny incremental price to pay to collect very valuable data.
5. Sample sizes are fairly low (they admit that towards the end)
6. Compliance was established through a self reporting process where patients had to submit weekly logs describing their compliance parameters for a year. I'm not sure about the reliability of this process.
7. Fairly high dropout rate (>30%) - the data from these dropouts is not analyzed, so we do not know why they left: whether the treatment made it worse for them or some other reason. It would seem logical that if things were going well, you'd be sticking to the treatment, so I view a high dropout rate as fairly negative.
8. The participants were not using the same hardware, in particular the headphones they were using were different and therefore could have significant impact (in terms of spectral changes) on the sounds that they output, and therefore, on the therapy itself.

I do wish them luck though: I think it's positive to see more people/companies getting into the T treatment ecosystem.

 

All excellent points, Greg. I just know the OBI is kind of a big deal here and they don't give their approval to just anyone. Also, it's not like they're claiming a cure, just that it can help - and obviously nothing is going to be able to help everyone for all kinds of reasons otherwise it is a cure. Lastly, for the cost, $400 that's pretty damn reasonable considering how much you can get into with other masking/training systems - generally in the $1000's of dollars. So they're trying to make a buck, but not profiteering off people's suffering. I think that alone should give them some real consideration.

 

They make you listen to classical music at a certain frequency. That's all the treatment is. I met with a hearing specialist about it as his clinic sold Sound Options.

 

Hi Ronnie,

Is it worth a go or a waste of money and time.

Best Denis

 

Tried it last winter. No effect whatsoever. Only difference is I’m $350 poorer.

 

Rationale and Efficacy of Sound Therapies for Tinnitus and Hyperacusis

Highlights
This is a comprehensive review of sound therapies for tinnitus and hyperacusis.
Putative mechanisms of T & H, and rationales for sound therapies are discussed.
Outcomes of sound therapy studies in animal models and human subjects are reviewed.

Abstract
Sound therapies are a common component of treatments for tinnitus and hyperacusis. The original idea was to partially or completely mask tinnitus with broadband noise delivered by sound generators or hearing aids, for a few hours each day. Over several months, many patients reported that their tinnitus became quieter or easier to bear, and that loud sounds became less aversive. However, it wasn’t always clear that these benefits could be attributed to sound therapy rather than to other aspects of treatment, such as counseling or hearing aid use, and not all patients reported benefits. During the past few decades, many other sound stimuli have been tried, including tones, noise bands, music, and nature sounds. These sounds have been filtered in relation to the tinnitus pitch, adjusted for hearing loss, amplitude-modulated, and recently paired with electrical nerve stimulation. Many of our ideas about the neural underpinnings of tinnitus and hyperacusis come from animal models. However, studies of sound treatments in animals with putative tinnitus or hyperacusis have been rare. Clinical sound therapy trials are emerging, but outcomes typically remain modest, and few patients achieve complete remission of tinnitus or hyperacusis, unless the underlying hearing loss is treated with hearing aids or implants, in which case success rates are higher. More studies are needed, on both animal models and human subjects, to further explore the rationales for the various sound therapy options reviewed here, and to optimally tailor sounds and treatment approaches to individual patients, so that maximum benefits can be obtained.

Abbreviations
ANFs; auditory nerve fibers
DCN: dorsal cochlear nucleus
GPIAS: gap-prepulse inhibition of the acoustic startle reflex
ICC: inferior colliculus
IHCs: inner hair cells
OHCs: outer hair cells
SFRs: spontaneous firing rates
TFI: Tinnitus Functional Index
THI: Tinnitus Handicap Inventory
TMNMT: tailor-made notched music training
TRQ: Tinnitus Reaction Questionnaire
VAS: visual analog scales
VNS: vagus nerve stimulation


Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0306452218306080

 

Would someone please share with me any value in this study? I read the abstract and it seemed elementary and void of useful substance. Hopefully there is value in it I can't see.

 

Hello all, I visited my audiologist yesterday. She is really good and we had an hour discussion about my tinnitus. We talked about all the basics and some of the future stuff potentially coming.

She did give me the option of trying "Sound Options". http://www.soundoptionstt.com/

She said it is not notch or like LEVO and she has seen success in around 40% of people. It's a flip of the coin so she was not promising much.

Has anyone used this? I searched the forums but didn't see any info.

Thanks!

 

Does sound therapy work on very fluctuating tinnitus with different tones and pitches?

 

This seems like it might actually be legitimate.

I'm inclined to believe this because of the 2 hours required per day. If they were trying to scam people you would want to make it sound as easy as possible. 2 hours a day is a tough sell if it doesn't produce results.

 

I feel like everything and anything is worth a try at this point (if it financially makes sense). I've found a lot of comfort when I use my Lipo-Flavonoid Sonorest so I can only imagine this would be a more intense version. Not sure if it would "cure" anything so I'm really curious if any of you try it!

 

Sound Therapy for Tinnitus: Options for Audiologists
James A. Henry
Candice M. Quinn
https://doi.org/10.1044/2020_PERSP-19-00156
Abstract

Purpose
Sound therapy to reduce the emotional and functional effects of tinnitus has been used by audiologists since the 1970s when Jack Vernon introduced the masking method to provide a sense of relief from tinnitus distress. Our group renamed masking sound as “soothing” sound and distinguished it from “interesting” and “background” sound, each of which has a different purpose for tinnitus sound therapy. Other methods of sound therapy have the potential to reduce the “sensation” of tinnitus, including notched noise, matched noise, desynchronization, and residual inhibition. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the different sound therapy approaches to serve as a resource for audiologists who often provide sound therapy to their patients with tinnitus.


Conclusion
Although, according to systematic reviews, sound therapy does not have strong evidence for treatment of tinnitus, it is nonetheless well evidenced both through abundant research and clinical utilization mostly by audiologists. It is unknown if any one form of sound therapy is superior to any other.