Antidepressants and Tinnitus Both Doing My Head in: Can Valdoxan (Agomelatine) Make Tinnitus Worse?

Hello fellow tinnitus sufferers,

I have had tinnitus for 15 years which is noise induced. I have seen ENTs and have my hearing tested regularly which is all normal except for high frequency bearing loss, hence the tinnitus. I invested in a brilliant pair of musician plugs and have managed for 14 years with my tinnitus until I was last year prescribed Lexapro for anxiety I was suffering as a result of long standing work stresses. I noticed an increase in my tinnitus but it took me a while until I realised it was the Lexapro doing this. As good as I was feeling on the lexapro I decided to come off as I could not bare the thought of my tinnitus getting louder than it was.

I need to go back on an antidepressants and would take Lexapro again in a heartbeat if I now hadn’t read all the research on SSRIs and tinnitus. My GP was completely unaware of this and this frustrates me to no end.

I have since seen a psychiatrist who apparently would be able to help and he straight out tells me anything he prescribes me I will find something on the internet to tell me that it will cause tinnitus. As all antidepressants affect the neurons in the brain what actual hope do we have. I am now taking a very low dose of Effexor which I slowly increase every day by opening the capsule which I believe is also making my condition worse again so i will be tapering back down. I am off work due to stress and anxiety and this is just making everything worse.

My question is has Valdoxan helped anyone without exacerbating their tinnitus???

 

I believe Remeron is one of the more favored ADs around here, seems to have the lowest risk. I have seen more cases of SSRIs causing/worsening tinnitus but your psychiatrist is right, there's anecdotal evidence that they can all be ototoxic.

 

Thanks @Tweedleman. I thought I might have been onto something given it is not an SSRI but of course have found a post on here now where it has affected someone’s T. Not a lot of feedback on it though so will keep researching.

 

I tried it after developing tinnitus from taking escitalopram. I woke up one night with ringing in my ears and couldn't get back to sleep for a long time. I believed the agomelatine made the tinnitus worse. Tinnitus is listed as a side effect of agomelatine. It was day 13 of taking agomelatine for me. I believe the medication was stated to effect after c.2 weeks of use.

 

I tried it but it didn't help me. I think @Liam_Cairns had a very bad reaction to it.

 

I have a post on here where I believe that the antidepressant nortriptyline that I took for only 4 days has worsened my tinnitus dramatically.
Of course, it might be different for you, but I will never take any antidepressant ever again.

 

Jazzed,

What are your symptoms (anxiety, depression)? Are you ok without the meds? Found anything else to help with that or with the tinnitus? I have had a session of acupuncture for the first time for the T. Don't think it helped, but have another session in about 10 days.

 

I had no symptoms of anxiety or depression.

The meds were prescribed to deal with chronic nerve pain.
They helped a little temporarily, but at the cost of potentially permanent tinnitus.
Not a trade off I would have made intentionally.

 

In my case, it was tapering off from Mirtazapine/Remeron what caused my tinnitus. I had never had it and two weeks after tapering off from 30mg to 15mg I started hearing this high pitch noise. Now, when things were going well, my general mood has worsened, thank you Mirtazapine...

 

JayZee, is it any better now? Have you tried anything?

 

No improvement yet, perhaps things are a little worse, but it’s hard to tell for sure, since it’s so up and down.

Lately, sleep has become a problem.

 

I take a low dose Paxil and it has had no increase on my tinnitus. Effexor is more energizing whereas Paxil is more sedating... I tried Effexor a while ago and absolutely hated it.

 

No improvement yet, perhaps things are a little worse, but it’s hard to tell for sure, since it’s so up and down.

Lately, sleep has become a problem.

I'm having problems with sleep too. You work? Have you tried anything to help with it?

 

I don't work right now.

I've tried Melatonin for the past two nights. It was great at getting me to sleep but then I woke up 2 hours later from the tinnitus and tossed and turned the rest of the night.

 

I'm sorry to hear that. What about doctors that do acupuncture? Melatonin is good for inducing sleep.

 

I just had an appointment with a woman who is the most highly regarded specialist in Australia. She stated that no antidepressant increases the severity or loudness of tinnitus. It is all in your subconscious mind which is uploaded to your conscious mind.

Anyone agree or been told this? I hope this is true. I need medication for anxiety and depression but I am terrified of increased tinnitus loudness as it is so loud now.

 

Hmmm... Has she mentioned any other medication?

 

I have bipolar depression and every single medication spikes my tinnitus so I am not on any meds at the moment. I do need meds for my condition.

Can anyone tell me if they just put up with the initial increase in tinnitus? Do you get used to it and will it plateau out?

 

When you say it didn't help you, was it regarding your depression? I also wanted to know if it affected your tinnitus and how long did you take it?

 

Why, out of interest, do you say that every medication spikes your tinnitus? What medication are you referring to?

 

It didn't help my anxiety and as I took it my right leg and right hand started tingling like crazy. It didn't help my tinnitus. I took it for about six weeks but as I saw no benefit we stopped.

 

This is a very misleading statement. Here's the actual reality: everyone has some percentage of antidepressants that make their tinnitus worse. The more severe your tinnitus is, the higher that percentage is going to be.

From personal experience, I have 10/10 loudness hyperacusis and what I would describe as, on average, 6 or 7/10 tinnitus, where 1 is you've noticed it before in a quiet room, but it doesn't bother you, 10 is suicidal thoughts nonstop from the tinnitus, despite trying habituation techniques, and 5 is that it legitimately bothers you enough to have a real interest in the future of regeneration medicine, for example. i.e. a very real quality of life impact.

With this being said, I have now tried, either for sleep or depression, about 4 antidepressants. Cymbalta was horrific for both the depression and tinnitus. Trazodone was horrific for the tinnitus. Low dose Remeron has an inconclusive effect. So far, Lexapro worsens it a little, but it's not currently clear if the worsening outweighs the anti-anxiety and anti-depression benefits.

Which brings me to my final point. Most of the time, the analysis should really be based on whether the benefits from the drug outweigh the detriment. For example, what if your tinnitus was a hair louder, but bothered you less? Obviously, to someone with 10/10 tinnitus, the answer is almost always "not worth it." But if you have wiggle room, there's not a huge downside to trying.

Also, when antidepressants do cause tinnitus, it is almost always reversible in the sense that it's not that structural damage to the ear is being done, but that the brain chemistry is just making the tinnitus more prominent.

 

I was referring to antidepressant and antipyschotic medication like Seroquel. They blow my tinnitus through the roof. I just cant stand it. Sorry I shouldn't have said all medications. Also I find upon ceasing the medication the tinnitus level does not drop back to its prior level.

I just want a tinnitus treatment so badly.

I wish there was a surgery option that would render me deaf in my left ear would cure it forever.

 

I agree that structural damage is not being done to the ear but how long does the damage to the brain chemistry last? I have tinnitus caused by a short 4 day usage of an anti-depressant about 4 months ago and I have yet to notice any real improvement.

 

Can we swear on this forum? Bullshit. This makes me so angry. I have so little respect left for their profession it isn't funny. When they don't know something, they make it up as they go along and we are left the suffer the consequences.

I wish there was data.
I don't know why I have tinnitus but I think from daily headaches. The brain chemistry changes, there was inflammation... something. My hearing is good.

I met with a local friend today that I met in a Facebook group a few months ago. She also has tinnitus that started after a cerebral spinal fluid leak. Leak patched up, tinnitus never went away. She thinks once the brain has developed a feedback loop it generally stays. I don't know if that is true and neither does she. Theories and speculation are all we have because like I said... no data.

 

I understand your disquiet, AliasM, and for good reason. Try not to be get too upset for this so-called specialist that Paul Walter refers to and others that some people look upon in awe are usually nothing of the sort. Granted, they may have a PhD, MD or be an Audiologist and know all about the anatomy of the ear, auditory system and the auditory cortex in the brain. All this is fine but only up to a point, for it tells a person absolutely nothing about tinnitus which is the reason this specialist stated antidepressants don't increase tinnitus and it's all in the subconscious which is absolute rubbish.

An antidepressant can increase tinnitus for some people but in many cases the increase is temporary. However, some people find a particular type may not agree with them but have success once they change to another brand of medication. Whilst it's good to have people in the medical profession to turn to for help, please remember being medically qualified does not make one a tinnitus specialist. I believe to be a tinnitus specialist one has got to live with the condition, otherwise they will never know or have any understanding of the way it can affect a person's mental and emotional wellbeing on a daily basis, because this knowledge cannot be learnt from a book.

Secondly, they should have had tinnitus for a least 3 preferably 5 years and have experience of what it's like when it's mild, moderate and severe. This is important because mild and moderate tinnitus can be habituated to in a relative short period of time for a lot of people. Tinnitus that is more severe and problematic especially when variable is an entirely different kettle of fish. Unless someone has experience of this they cannot in my opinion be considered a tinnitus specialist.

Michael

 

@Tee_funk, did you find another antidepressant to try?

Is @Tee_funk still around? I can't seem to find a link to his name on here...?

 

Hi @Uklawyer.

I found Valdoxan did not spike my tinnitus at all, however, unfortunately it did not really help my depression. But please try it, just because it did not treat my depression does not mean it will not help you - you may get relief without tinnitus increase.

Valdoxan has a different mechanism of action. It does not target Serotonin like most antidepressants. Personally I am certain it is Serotonin that aggravates nerves in the ear or auditory pathway and in turn spikes tinnitus, I don't believe it is the medication itself. I say this because I have had TMS and ECT shock therapy which obviously do not require medication and each of these procedures made tinnitus much louder and for me the increase was permanent.

Good luck mate. I really hope the Valdoxan does the tick for you.

 

Hi @Paul Walter.

Thanks for your message. I am sorry to read about your experiences with TMS and ECT. I tried Valdoxan, but my tinnitus got worse about 13 days into taking it. I do not know if it was due to the drug. I have read of 7 or 8 people on here that said it had no effect on their tinnitus vs. one who said it seemed to aggravate it (Liam Cairns), so I am hoping it was not the Valdoxan.

Have you tried any mind-body approaches like meditation or mindfulness for yours? It seems like tackling the anxiety/depression (pre-existing) may provide a potential pathway to helping out with tinnitus that may be due to these issues.

Best wishes.

 

Personally I won’t take any allopathic antidepressants.

I believe they interfere with the body trying to find balance.

Try to find peace in nature. Walk in forests and by the sea.

Basically you need to calm your nervous system.

Introducing strange chemicals will not do this.