Auditory Mirror Therapy for Treatment of Tinnitus

I don't think it's very beneficial for my recovery spending too much time on tinnitus research though... I should make a living out of this.

 

Spending too much time on tinnitus research destroys me. It's depressing that there are no treatments on the horizon.

 

That’s correct. The results will probably be published this summer.

 

I agree, sometimes doing research on various cures and treatments can put you in depressing mood. It's best to to take a break.

 

ClinicalTrials.gov: Evaluation of Auditory Mirror-Therapy for Tinnitus

The primary endpoint of the trial has been reached.

 

So what happens now?

 

They announce it as a success with the obligatory 13 point deduction in the TFI.

Seasoned tinnitus veterans realise that's placebo/CBT rubbish.

Newcomers jump for joy and rush out to buy it, only to be disappointed.

Sorry, very cynical

 

Damn.

 

I'm guessing.

 

The thing that grinds my gears is that couldn't they have done something like this way back in the 90s or early 2000s. It feels so primitive and simple. Hopefully with the combination of over the counter hearing aids and this does the trick... IDK. But hey, it's better than TRT, right? Right? RIGHT

 

Only if Ronaldinho was an audiologist!

 

No, it's actually the same crap as TRT. I still don't know why they bother researching stuff like this and not real pharmacological solutions. Trick investors, government, etc. to grab some funding cash?

Like the brain is gonna care if the sound it receives is from a different direction and then somehow stops generating the tinnitus lol. This already happens by the way with the sound bouncing off surfaces and reaching the opposite ear. Simple physics.

 

It does seem like there is some science/rationale behind this approach. More information here:

Auditory Mirror Therapy for Tinnitus with Clas...

I'm hoping we get some info about the results of this trial soon. If it's successful, maybe someone on Tinnitus Talk who is good at electronics/soldering could set up a business shipping out modified headphones

 

I wonder how they plan to sham control in a way that isn’t obvious to the subject.

 

I'm not overly optimistic about this, however the more treatments, the better.

Disappointing he uses only mild-moderate cases.

In general the comparisons with neuropathic pain have really resonated with me in the last month after the discussion I had with Prof. Peter McNaughton, who is working with Alan Palmer's group in Nottingham.

 

Estimated completion date: June 30. 2023. Still, nothing.

 

That was some bullshit study.

 

According to this, the estimated study completion date is 2024-01-30. Not sure what the "estimated study completion date" actually means. I guess it could be the completion of the trial and the publication of the trial results could be subject to another timeline...

 

Looking at that study (in your link) just now, the estimated completion date has now been updated to 30th August 2024, so maybe there's still some hope that good news will be reported this year.

In the meantime, I'm fascinated by those 'having a go' at making their own setup to try it anyway. The 3M headphones used in the trials are pretty expensive - I won't be buying a set to hack them apart and re-wire their drivers! However, normal industrial ear defenders are pretty cheap, so how about putting some fairly standard earbud-type earphones into your ears and then putting some industrial headphones on over the top to mask out the ambient noise properly? Then I'll stick some left and right recording microphones onto the headphones (but the wrong way on) and feed them into something to amplify and put back through the earbuds. Job done. It has to be worth a try - the worst that can happen is that it doesn't work!

 

If this thing works, we don't only need to switch the sound by 180 degrees, but also have a lot of sound/vision stimuli. Just wearing headphones in a not right environment would have zero effect.

Maybe watching action movies on the big screen with a 5.1 or 7.1 sound system with switched speakers could provide enough brain confusion to test this treatment theory.

 

I took part in this study last year. I was told I would have results by the Fall of 2023.

I just emailed my study contact, who has always been very quick to respond. However, her email seems to have been disabled.

Fantastic...

 

Did it help at all?

 

I took part in the study as well. I’m almost certain I got the placebo headphones.

 

Please see the comments from Dr. Will Sedley before getting involved with purchasing this:

→ Daily Mail: The headphones that could ease tinnitus with a radical new treatment

 

Mirror therapy might work. Tinnitus is a phantom pain/sound.

 

Am I right in thinking that this treatment wouldn’t need FDA approval?

Thanks.

 

No.

But I believe I was given the placebo.

I was just disappointed because I was promised results and possible access to the real headphones once the study was over in the fall of 2023.

 

Given that you can find a movie with enough ambiance (not easy for movies, especially action movies, even with Atmos) and minimal music, essentially, what's the difference - quantitative or qualitative - of immersion between a movie and real life?

5.1 is crap compared to 7.1. I watched the same movie in both 5.1 and 7.1; when you crank it up, 5.1 hurts your ears because it's noisy. 7.1 is not noisy.

 

...or you could have a laptop screen with some YouTube podcast on the left and listen to it with the right earphone only.

...or you could watch this video from Sabine Hossenfelder to learn how academia and research work. Apply this comment to the latest thread on tDCS and many others. And if you get bored, fill in the latest "research" tinnitus questionnaire and acknowledge that you did it.

My dream died, and now I'm here

 

Is this device really promising? Why are there only four pages of discussion since 2022, as opposed to Susan Shore's device thread, which has over 200?

Is it because this device doesn't really reduce the intensity of tinnitus, but rather the symptoms associated with it?

In any case, it's good to see that there are different types of devices being tested.

My biggest fear is that Susan Shore's device will be a flop, that it will only work for a minority of people, and that we won't have another treatment for years to come.