Article Posted by the BTA: Tinnitus: Developing Effective Treatments or Even a Cure

Just saw this on the BTA’s Facebook page and thought it was worth adding here.

It’s about the work of Dr Will Sedley.

https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/tinnitus-developing-effective-treatments/60579/

 

Profile picture on point.

 

He's doing some useful work on trying to develop an objective test for tinnitus. The research project is funded by Action on Hearing Loss (not the BTA).

 

I’ve read a lot about Will - and watched some of his videos - since Steve bought him to my attention a while back. He is good for the cause and I like his ideas. I’m aware his latest project is funded by Action on Hearing Loss as it says so in the article, but I found it on the BTA’s Facebook page as the title states. It’s interesting to note that he is the nephew of the BTA’s former president, Sir Stephen Sedley and that he is also a member of their professional advisory committee. So, he has close ties to them.

You can read more about his ideas here:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5152595/

 

@Ed209,

Thanks for posting this.

I would love to hear a discussion between Josef Rauschecker and Will Sedley. I wonder if Will Sedley talked in plain language if his ideas and Rauschecker's might have a lot in common, which would be a good thing,

I do wonder about Will Sedley's commitment to tinnitus research. Although he acknowledges the role of his patients and their contribution to his research, he also said they can learn to get used to tinnitus in an article in The Times a while back. And, does he really think the treatment for tinnitus can be downloaded in a phone app?

BTA's income seems to be enough to cover operating expenses and projects exclusive of research. Funds for research comes from reserves, which probably originated as the bequests David spoke about during the Tinnitus Talk Podcast.

Have you looked at AoHL's finances? Perhaps they have more money to spend. Who funds what may be a matter of simple economics.

TC

 

They are much larger with an income of £40.1m and £11.6m coming from donations and legacies. It’s much easier to fund research at this level; the BTA is a very small charity and I think people often forget that.

 

The development of an objective measure for the presence of tinnitus SHOULD NOT be a prerequisite to the development of a cure. I know that makes the science harder but what if finding a cure is easier than finding the objective measure for its presence beyond the patient reporting it?

 

I would think finding the cure is easier, at least when it comes hearing loss/noise exposure. I don't understand why they just won't focus on regeneration when that has been SHOWN to cure most cases of tinnitus. They only need means of prerequisite for other causes like stress/TMJ. Though I can only assume, from my theory, that TMJ aggravates and causes tinnitus from bone conduction.

 

Eh? Where has it been shown? Care to link a few RCTs?

 

There's proof in some of the research/acute cases on this forum. Also, I think it's logical to assume that when people's tinnitus fades over the months, it's because they recover the hearing loss they suffered from in most cases. Meaning some of the higher frequencies are reestablished/regained because your ear starts to heal whatever hair cells and synapses you have left.

It's why some hearing aids help and also fade tinnitus out too, I would believe?

 

I was in a rush earlier and didn’t really get chance to comment in detail.

I’d agree with him that some learn to get used to it so I don’t really see a problem with that comment in general. As for the phone app comment that’s an interesting one because if Neuromod finds success with their device, in principle, that could be reduced to a phone app at some point so the idea as a whole is not beyond the realm of possibility. It all depends on what the cure for tinnitus looks like: is it a pill/injection of some kind or can it be treated with some form of multi-modal stimulation?