Ketamine Treatment Clinics & Experiences — Can Ketamine Cure Tinnitus?

Let's discuss Ketamine and how it might work for tinnitus in this thread. Please post your experiences with Ketamine.

Below is from Arizona Ketamine Treatment and Research Institute:

Based on work in the 1990s, French researchers demonstrated that tinnitus occurs after damage to the ear that causes an increase in the number of NMDA receptors in nerve cells inside the cochlea. Ketamine blocks NMDA receptors, and in two large studies, over half of the patients treated with S-Ketamine injected directly into the ear experienced significant improvement in their Tinnitus symptoms, with these beneficial effects lasting several months. Our program uses a modified version of this therapy, using four, five, or six slow IV infusions of Ketamine over a two-week Period.

Early treatment may be critical. The results of ongoing research indicate that Ketamine is most effective in individuals who have experienced onset of Tinnitus within the previous year.​

http://arizonaketamine.com/tinnitus-treatment-ketamine/​

 

So how would this treatment exactly go? And is this also considered to be closely linked to people getting psychoses?

I don't mean to be a downer, but is this FDA approved? Are there any research papers done on this subject that one could read?

 

Ketamine has amazing potential as a treatment for chronic depression. I am curious to whether it actually diminishes the noise, or simply removes the cloud from the tinnitus sufferers psyche, enabling them to occupy their thoughts with something other than tinnitus.

 

I hate to bring this zombie back from the dead, but there's a clinical trial going on in the United States to see if an IV of Ketamine will help tinnitus sufferers. Tinnitus has to have lasted beyond 6 months, which I just passed... I plan on doing it once travel restrictions are lifted.

The science at least has some basis.

Anyone who's done Ketamine or been to a trial, what's your story?

 

Would be cool if someone actually did it instead of just talking about it.

I can't drive but I've tried Keppra, Mirtazapine, Nortriptyline, Xanax, Memantine, Prednisone, and a bunch of other things with no clear relief.

 

I'm a bit surprised none of those helped at all.

Benzos and steroids (even though causing worsened tinnitus when going off of them) help me. I tried Memantine at a VERY low dose though. The half life rather scared me off of higher dosing.

I tried DXM and it did seem to work on the tinnitus tones although my wavering got worse.

Ketamine makes sense being a better version of what DXM / Memantine target.

 

Xanax helps but it’s not sustainable.

 

I'm not sure what trial you're talking about but I recall reading about a completed trial that poured Ketamine into peoples' ears through a tube for many hours that helped with tinnitus, although it was crazily impractical.

Both Keyzilen (AM-101) and Otonomy's OTO-313 use molecules that are very similar to Ketamine, but aim to make the delivery mechanism more practical by substituting extended release gels for the ear shower.

Keyzilen (AM-101) showed promise in early trials but failed during Phase III.

OTO-313 is currently undergoing trials (there's a thread on it in the forum).

 

Necroposting here... I've been incredibly interested in trying this Ketamine treatment, but decided to wait to see if I could get into the OTO-313 trials that were supposed to start 1st quarter of this year. It's almost the end of Q1 so I'm going to start preparing to try this soon.

My tinnitus became bad back in end of September last year, and got even worse in the end of October, so that puts me at about 4-5 months right now. If I go through with this I'll post updates here in the forums.

Edit: Guess I'm not necroposting. I read the dates on the posts wrong.

 

I have tried Ketamine after I got tinnitus, also a quite huge dose which sent me into k-hole (first proper k-hole). I would say it is no miracle cure at all. But I am not sure.

I will try to experiment a bit more in maybe a few weeks' time.

 

I'd be interested in hearing from anyone who has had Spravato.

 

I tried Ketamine for depression and it made my tinnitus far worse like all antidepressants do.

 

Try microdosing over 2-3 weeks.

 

Has anyone tried this?

 

I am not sure. Want to be the first?

 

Are you still around? Did it make your tinnitus worse permanently? How many infusions did you do?

 

Damnit, I want to try Ketamine and my finger is hovering over the call button right now, but seeing posts of it making things worse is messing with my confidence...

I want to be the one to do it and get some benefit that could hopefully benefit the rest of you.

Maybe those that have had worsening is because they are past the acute phase?

 

Don't take any risk you are not comfortable with. I might try Ketamine in a few months, probably that or Psilocybin microdosing are my next steps.

I'll tell you what I have seen and the evidence I'm weighing; Ketamine in recreational doses can induce or nearly mitigate tinnitus - it's mostly a crapshoot; Ketamine in medical dosages (lower) can spike tinnitus temporarily or help, temporarily or permanently. There aren't any posts I've seen that say a medical dose (like a dosage used for depression) has permanently worsened tinnitus, but I'm not omnipotent. If anyone here has had that happen please add to the data so we can know. There is a non-zero chance if you try Ketamine that could happen to you.

This is my current perspective and how I'm evaluating risk/reward. Generally, ketamine seems to be one of the "safer" radical options, but again, anything could happen.

 

I've seen one post on here, that I can remember, where someone said it permanently worsened their tinnitus: https://www.tinnitustalk.com/posts/599168/

I've been searching through Reddit and I've seen a couple say that as well; one was from Ketamine infusion, the other I can't tell if they were just medicating with Ketamine or they did infusions.

I've seen 7 accounts where it didn't affect their tinnitus or only temporarily made it worse, and 3 instances where it made theirs better: One said Ketamine reduced their tinnitus by 70%, another stated Ketamine completely got rid of their tinnitus for a couple months and then it came back at only 50%.

I have an appointment with, what I have heard in this forum, a really good ENT at the University of California Irvine at the end of July where I'm going to ask about his opinions on Low Dose Nortriptyline or any other findings he has come across. I also want to take a shot in the dark with LDN (Naltrexone) and Pramipexole.

I don't want to wait until end of July though as things just keep getting worse and I'm spiraling into major depression/suicide. I'm seeing one of the doctor's nurse practitioners this Friday, but I'm not expecting anything to come out of it.

Worried I'm running out of time for any NMDA antagonists to even work. It's been about 8 months since all of this started, and have had worsening or new tones every other month.

I'm only looking to reduce the volume any amount. I don't expect miracles, but I'd like to get down to a habitable (habituable?) level. I absolutely refuse to live like a hermit, avoiding all noise.

Sure I won't go to concerts/clubs, sporting events anymore.

But I'll be damned if I'm not going to travel, hike, camp, skate/surf, play guitar (at home, not in bands anymore), go on dates, hang out with friends anymore.

 

Sounds like you are making an informed decision; ignore me - if I try it I will let you know. I am coming up on one year now, and at that anniversary I will likely make some bolder decisions around next steps.

 

If you do Pramipexole best of luck - it has helped me and continues to help me. The first 24 hours you will feel like you want to throw up and probably won't sleep much, but that goes away.

 

That's the issue I'm having. I think I'm too informed now, haha. I've got myself stuck here. It seems like a coin flip. So far everything makes mine worse: Prednisone, vaccine, nasal steroids. Wondering if any medication will just have a negative impact on me.

 

I don't know if we'll land on it, but I refuse to believe there is literally nothing that can help.

 

I think I can give some insight on how/why drugs with psychedelic properties seem to worsen tinnitus.

I use Psilocybin, another substance that causes visual and auditory hallucinations. While not unpleasant, it did make my tinnitus much louder during the sessions. I was using it to treat a pain condition, tinnitus was not my main focus. But after several sessions, it just faded until it was completely silent.

I don't think anyone should be afraid of Ketamine treatments. What would scare me is INCOMPLETE Ketamine treatments. Taking medications with psychedelic properties seems to at least temporarily exacerbate tinnitus.

Psychedelics cause absolute mayhem in your brain. Your senses are heightened, and the connections in your brain get super active and chaotic. It is the equivalent of cleaning your room by throwing everything out of the drawers all over the floor and making a huge mess before reorganizing all your belongings. It's great, because you get a new perspective, and you get to perhaps organize your drawers differently. It can be pretty intense. When the dust settles, most people have a refreshed outlook on life.

But for tinnitus or chronic pain, I think we need a more thorough reorganization. It's not enough to just stop ruminating or feeling a certain way. There is a sensation that is intensely annoying and unpleasant, and each time we cause this chaotic state in the brain, we have a chance to reorganize in a way that puts the sensation below perception.

What would annoy me about an incomplete Ketamine treatment would be the idea of having to go through all this, and go through the temporary exacerbation, but not finish the treatment successfully.

 

I called the Arizona Ketamine Treatment and Research Institute today to get some info about it and was told the doctor is no longer doing Ketamine infusion for tinnitus as he couldn't get good results with it.

So maybe that helps answer the question of Ketamine for tinnitus.

There's always the possibility if you get the treatment for anxiety/depression it may help you with your tinnitus but I don't think this is some sort of miracle cure.

I'm going to look into Ketamine infusion for depression because my medication is no longer helping and any time I try to increase the dosage my tinnitus gets worse. I also don't want to mess around with SSRIs until I have no other choice. Yes I tried CBT already. All it gave me was a dent in my bank account.

 

To be honest, I think the best bet is just steroid shots in the ear.

 

Are you going to try this? I feel like it would be difficult to get a doctor to do it.

 

This is common procedure for SSHL and Meniere’s patients. I believe that IT steroids are safer and more effective than systemic administration.

 

Yes, I'm going to try as it's my last hope other than anti seizure meds and potentially Ketamine/Lidocaine.

 

Let us know how it goes. I’m still trying to find other solutions to try.