Completed Commercial Lidocaine Patch as a Treatment for Ear-ringing

Thanks @linearb! But they are not tinnitus approved right? I understand they are for other conditions.

 

Did you place them more or less as they did in the study?

The ones in the study were 5%; the OTC ones are 4%. You'd think that if 5% was actually effective, 4% would do something.

Yes, as far as I know. The things I've done, modified or ingested on a purely experimental basis are legion, but there could certainly be risks associated with misuse here.

 

I've been using the OTC 4% patches for about a week and there has been some slight fluctuation in tinnitus levels.

 

I just ordered a few boxes of Lidocaine patches and am going to give this a try. I'm curious if anyone knows if the patches need to be worn all day, or just 12 hours?

Also I have tinnitus in my left side only. Caused by blunt force trauma. It sounds like people have been wearing the patches center on back of neck? I'm considering putting the patches more on my left side, but wonder if this won't work because it may not be as close to the larger nerve clusters.

Thanks for any info.

 

It would be interesting to try Lidocaine behind the ear and on the neck separately.

 

I really, really, really don't think Lidocaine patches will work. At least unless you start putting a lot of patches on you.

Lidocaine is shown to reliably work, when used as IV/injection.

Dermal transport is so, so bad. It's akin to rubbing pseudoephedrine tablets on your nose in the hopes it dries up your sinuses during a cold. Your skin would likely burn and blister before any meaningful medication levels got into your system (or you'd need patches all over fresh areas).

Diffusion will also get worse with time, not better.

If it's going to work at all, make sure it is "not" the salt version of the drug, that will only react at the epidermis and won't go much further. (HydroBromide/chloride is the salt version, meant for ingestion or to limit dermal travel)

Some medications do work transdermally, but they are typically very lipophilic, electrically smaller, won't react with dermal tissues but will with target ones, and the dose is quite high whereas the needed systemic levels are quite low for the mechanism to work. Nicotine and Scopolamine comes to mind. There are other target tissues for Lidocaine as it traverses, so they'd need to be saturated before it had any meaningful effect (your skin would be extremely numb).

Lidocaine's great for many things because voltage gated sodium channels are everywhere, with obviously lots in your skin, muscles, etc on the way to the bloodstream.

Classic case of it works in vitro but not so much in vivo (the body as a whole makes things stupid complicated). Keep in mind there's an unlucky few where Lidocaine creates tinnitus. It depends upon the mechanism of course of how your tinnitus came to be.

So in my opinion, you'd have better luck sticking it up your butt or via IV.

 

What about Lidocaine with DMSO? I wonder.

 

Hey thanks guys for your responses. Especially Matchbox. I would really like to give a more in depth thoughtful response, I've had a super long day, and am just getting ready to go to sleep. I'm posting this now because I wanted to express my thanks.

I don't like to be scared of it getting worse. I realize that's possible, but I'm trying to build confidence in a reality that despite me working with pretty extreme decibel level gas powered tools for many hours every day, I've figured out that cozy, good fitting earbuds, playing music or podcast at low to moderate sound, coupled with the best noise protection muffs available will protect my hearing, and prevent tinnitus from worsening, and it's all paranoia, if that it might get louder. I know that might not necessarily be true but this is my chosen path, please don't dissuade me, I understand the potential consequences.

So Matchbox, I'm guessing you're right, you sound like you really truly know what you're talking about. I guess the way I see it, I don't have anything to lose, and I'm not going to be scared of it getting worse. I appreciate your information, and fair warning.

I will report back, so that my experience could hopefully help others, however it goes.

My plan is to wear the patch for 12 hours a day, and I'm leaning on placing it more left sided than simply back of neck. I'll let you guys know once I see the size.of the patches etc...

Stay strong people.

Daniel

 

Well obviously I hope it works for you and that I can eat my words. If it helps you, I will gladly put one up my butt to see if it works better.

 

@tinmandan, did you try the patches? If so, how did they work for you?

 

I tried this with patches though it did not help me.