How Many Years Do You Figure It WIll Take to Find a Cure for Tinnitus?

Dr. Nagler

How many years away, do you feel we are in finding a cure. And what approach (or form), do you feel that cure would consist off. Is there one approach, that you like the most.

Thanks Daniel

 

Daniel, that is a very interesting question.

I will give you my opinion on the matter, but first I wish to acknowledge that there are a number of people I hold in high regard, @jchinnis being one of them, who disagree with me.

Bottom line: I personally do not believe that there will ever be a cure for tinnitus.

Here's why ...

It is well-established that in the absence of external sound (e.g., in a soundproof room) everybody will hear tinnitus upon purposely listening for it. (That's what the Heller & Bergman study showed in 1953.) That observation makes perfect sense, since the auditory system is such an active system. Same thing if you shut your eyes tightly in a dark room; you'll start seeing designs - lines, diamonds, and such. These designs seen in a pitch black environment represent normal spontaneous activity in the visual system just like tinnitus experienced in a soundproof room represents normal spontaneous activity in the auditory system.

So the existence of some degree of tinnitus is a normal physiological phenomenon. The question then becomes how much tinnitus does it take for it to be audible in one's normal auditory environment when one does not purposely seek it.

Thus, to cure tinnitus you have to eradicate a normal physiological phenomenon the conscious abnormal clinical expression of which is highly variable based from person to person. And I just do not see how that can be accomplished.

Note that what we on this board experience is not in any way normal. But as I see it in order to cure tinnitus, you also have to cure "normal" tinnitus - and since abnormal tinnitus is a moving target, so is normal tinnitus.

Now before folks here jump all over me for being some sort of bad guy, I hope that they will realize that my opinion to the effect that there will never be a cure for tinnitus does not in any way, shape, or form impact whether or not there will in point of fact ever be a cure for tinnitus. It's just one man's opinion.

Also, I have donated thousands and thousands of dollars to tinnitus research and continue to donate ... just on the chance that I might be wrong. But I really don't think I am.

Dr. Stephen Nagler