Daily Mail Article on 14 Year Old Girl with Hyperacusis

Her friend's stepfather blew an air horn in her ear. She now has severe hyperacusis. She seems to be doing TRT but not helping much.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-5130135/Girl-14-suffers-condition-turns-sound-pain.html

 

Very sad story. Hyperacusis is awful, and I hate to read of anyone else suffering from it.

I found it interesting that the article said there is no cure. We are often told that there is, yet the article said WNGs only help lessen it.

But most interesting to me was that it mentioned a recent finding that some nerve fibers in the ear are actually pain receptors. This would explain much of the pain and fullness many of us feel.

If there are damaged pain receptors in the ear, then I really do not see how WNGs would help.

 

The effectiveness of WNGs (also referred to TRT, sound therapy, etc.) gets debated heavily on TTalk and elsewhere. I find it most helpful to go directly to the studies that have been done, and people can draw their own conclusions from the data.

This website summarizes the research that has been published. My take-away is that it seems like sound therapy sometimes can be helpful (though not a cure) for some patients, but not all.

http://hyperacusisfocus.org/research/soundtherapy/

 

Agreed. I wonder if the presence of pain and the level of pain could be an indication of whether sound therapy will be helpful.

 

When TRT is administered correctly it can be a very effective treatment for tinnitus and hyperacusis. It is not a cure for tinnitus but can completely cure hyperacusis in some people. I am proof of this as I once had very severe hyperacusis. To the point were every sound hurt and was in a lot of pain. When in conversation with someone I had to ask them to please lower their voice. I had TRT for 2 years, wearing white noise generators for up to 10hrs a day and using s sound machine at night. My hyperacusis has been cured for 18 years.

Hyperacusis is the result of the auditory receptors or gateways in the brain that have opened up due to noise trauma. Depending on how severe the hyperacusis is will determine on how long and how much a person will recover. In severe circumstances treatment using white noise generators will be necessary and preferably with counselling known as TRT. Over time the white noise which is gently delivered by the WNG attached to the ears, desensitise the hypersensitivity of the auditory system and thus begin to close down the "auditory receptors/gateways" in the brain so hypersensitivity is no longer experienced.

Some people call the hypersensitivity to sound caused by noise trauma "Reactive tinnitus". There is no such thing, this term was made up in tinnitus forums. It is actually hyperacusis and it comes in different levels of severity and no two people will experience it quite the same, just as tinnitus is experienced differently between people.

For those that will believe nothing other than research and data particularly when it involves tinnitus and hyperacusis, might want to read the article below about hyperacusis. It also mentions Reactive tinnitus. The link to the website is at the end of the article.

Michael


Definitions
What is Hyperacusis?

The lack of consistency in defining hyperacusis is frustrating for researchers and patients alike. The following are the most common definitions for terms related to hyperacusis and decreased sound tolerance.

Decreased Sound Tolerance- Present when every day sounds cause a negative reaction. This includes most of the conditions listed below.

Hyperacusis- Present when every day sounds are perceived as being uncomfortably loud or cause physical pain. Negative reactions to sound caused by something other than uncomfortable loudness or pain (e.g. fear, distortion, tinnitus, annoyance) is not defined as hyperacusis. Misuse of the term “hyperacusis” is common.

There is a push to replace the often misused “hyperacusis” with “pain hyperacusis” and “loudness hyperacusis” (Tyler 2014). This adds clarity to the meaning of the terms and splits into subtypes where detailed mechanisms will surely have differences. While these two types generally occur together, there is a portion of hyperacusis patients that present loudness hyperacusis without pain and a portion that present pain hyperacusis without increased loudness sensation.

Pain Hyperacusis- Present when sounds trigger pain in the ear below common pain thresholds (120 dB).

Loudness Hyperacusis- Present when moderately intense sounds are perceived as being uncomfortably loud.

The term hearing sensitivity is discouraged as the meaning is ambiguous and it can inaccurately suggests the ability to detect sounds that others cannot hear.

Misophonia- Present when everyday sounds cause a negative emotional reaction. Examples of emotions that can be triggered from sound include annoyance, rage and fear. Other researchers wish to drop usage of the term misophonia and instead split this into fear hyperacusis and annoyance hyperacusis in order to to simplify naming and make the terms easier to interpret by the general public.

Phonophobia- Present when everyday sounds cause fear (subset of misophonia). Other researchers wish to call this fear hyperacusis in order to make the term easier to interpret by the general public. For some, this is more directly linked to a fear of re-injury or long-term setback.

Vestibular Hyperacusis- Present when everyday sounds induce disordered balance or vertigo. This is commonly referred to as Tullio’s Phenomenon.

Reactive Tinnitus- Present when everyday sounds increase tinnitus activity. This is not a term used in research literature but commonly used by tinnitus patients. Winding-up and kindling are terms sometimes used to describe similar effects.

http://hyperacusisfocus.org/research/definitions/

 

I think that is a very interesting question. I can only speak to my personal experience. In my case, hyperacusis manifests as pain with sound. I underwent formal TRT with WNGs and counseling under the care of one of the world's leading authorities on TRT. Unfortunately, in my case, it did not help, in fact I went in the other direction, and after 6 months of treatment I could no longer tolerate the WNGs even at the lowest volume setting and was forced to discontinue.

 

Thank you for sharing your experience. The study link you posted is helpful, too.

I am sincerely sorry that sound therapy did not help you.

I am very intrigued by the finding regarding the inner ear pain receptors. A better understanding of these nerve fibers may unlock the key to a true, fully effective cure for hyperacusis. I should search the TT research section and see if there is more information there regarding this finding.

 

I think TRT can help loudness hyperacusis (some cases at least). But not pain hyperacusis.

@Tinker Bell, it took around 15 years of research for these pain receptors in the inner to be found. I hope it won't take another 15 years to confirm that they cause H, and another 15 to find an effective painkiller.

 

http://hyperacusisresearch.org/cure4cindy/

 

I hope that stepfather gets charged with child abuse causing great bodily harm. They probably won't because hyperacusis is subjective and people look just fine.

 

He probably got away with it. With the help of a skilled lawyer, he can say that most people will not get H when an air horn gets blown in their ears, and that the girl is genetically predisposed to get H. And the sad thing is, that's the truth. Not that it makes him any less of an asshole.

 

A similar thing happend to my Brother's friend at work. Someone had a megaphone and came up behind him and shouted- it resulted in him having tinnitus. Management took out a disciplinary action against the person doing this stupid thing. Not only that but the individual affected was taking the matter to court as he was unable to work. The person responsible was now full of regret and remorse. It so happens the person's tinnitus eventually went away.

 

"The Redmond's said the man who blew the air horn in Cindy's face has never apologized, but the two have tried to find forgiveness and have decided to not seek legal action.

She has lost friends who think she has made up her condition and her friend's stepfather doesn't allow the girls to see each other anymore, though they still communicate online at times."

 

@Autumnly Oh my that man is more horrible than I thought he was!

 

What's to stop her father from taking a couple air horns and blowing them in that man's ears until they run out of air? You know, since this kind of thing is seen as a minor issue. While he's at it, he might as well tie the man down and pour bleach into his eyes.

 

I'm a peaceful person but nothing would stop me from doing the same to him when he least expects it, considering how he's reacting to the situation. See how much he likes it. What an absolute prick.

 

Very sad story. That man deserves to have his kneecaps shattered.

 

I found a vlog for her:

Hyperacusis Vlog- Hearing Disorder Specialist

It seems she developed tinnitus after wearing white noise generators and the Dr. blamed it on the generators not being loud enough...

 

Wow. Really activates my almond.

Seriously though that sucks. Wish there was more legal action that could be taken.

 

Oh no, that is awful. And not loud enough?! I have read some claims that WGNs should help even if the patient cannot hear the noise.

Honestly, I have been very hesitant about WNGs. When I tried a zen tone, I preferred it to the static of white noise. However, I noticed after using it for a while that I would still hear the zen chimes in my head after I turned off the WNG. That seemed a bit counterintuitive to me.

 

Jesus Christ!

 

What an idiot the father is. How loud is a typical air horn?

 

According to this CBC / Radio-Canada article, a hand held air horn measured at 129 decibels.

"The cowbell produced 110 decibels at about 0.6 metres, or two feet, while the air horn measured 129 decibels — enough to actually cause pain and temporary hearing impairment."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/cowbells-and-air-horns-how-loud-are-they-1.1262671

 

To clarify, it was her friend’s stepfather — not her own father.

Another thought I had: what kind of (insert your profanity or word of choice) has an air horn within arm’s reach of the dinner table? He’s mad about her manners, so he decides to grab his nearby air horn and blow it in her ear. Because using an air horn is polite etiquette when someone takes a phone call? What an absolute imbecile.

I think that one act gives us a pretty good idea of the character of this guy.

 

You improved from placebo and Jastreboff is a dangerous sociopath. How much gaslighting does Jastreboff do?

 

Nice to see you back on the forum @japongus as I did miss our crossing of swords. In truth I was getting a little bored. Good to see you're keeping up to speed with that special brand of humor that I like, as long as the content is clean and decent, which it is on this occasion. Please don't spoil it now!

 

Before I came onto here officially, I read a lot of your comments thinking you were one of the only people here that made sense. I'm glad you're back.

 

There's nothing even remotely funny about it, and nothing personal about it. You speak in a totalizing manner like Jastreboff does, about terms invented by him, that are extremely dangerous to the community. He's the Elmer Gantry of this place. Focus on this thread, where Jastreboff gives tinnitus to a patient and says she got it because the ''TRT'' wasn't loud enough.

 

Isn't that what is described as "stochastic resonance" by the TRT school of thought?

 

Cognitive dissonance?