EMDR Proven to Be Effective for Tinnitus Distress

Hi everyone,

Happy new year!

I just read something about EMDR proven to be effective for tinnitus distress. Not sure if someone else already posted something about it, but I couldn’t find it, so I thought this thread might be helpful and useful to some of you.

Recent Dutch research shows that EMDR might be effective for 50% of people with tinnitus distress. If you’re curious, here’s the link:

A trauma-focused approach for patients with tinnitus: the effectiveness of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing – a multicentre pilot trial
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6136386/​

I’m curious to hear your opinions. I think the therapy might be helpful to some degree. If you remove negative associations with a certain problem, it gets easier to cope with it. It’s actually comparable to TRT but the research shows it can work a lot faster than TRT. Maybe worth a try, to help some people feel less distressed and cope better.

 

I'm Dutch and starting EMDR for tinnitus distress later this month. Had my intake yesterday. The protocol itself is catered to the patient's experience.

We shall see.

The results have been widely acknowledged here in Holland. Breaking the cycle of distress changes the priority of tinnitus in the brain. So it is indeed similar to TRT and CBT, but it can be a quicker way.

Mind you, my tinnitus is stress/trauma induced. I have no hearing loss. So I can't judge the treatment for those that do.

 

Over the last 6 months I've been working with a new therapist who is experienced in EMDR and has used it to work with older veterans with Tinnitus that saw improvement after starting EMDR. I was going through a tinnitus rough patch, probably the worst I had had since initially developing it and on one of my worst days she decided to start the EMDR sessions that night, and I can honestly say that since that night things seemed like they started to steadily improve and fast forward 3-4 months and I'm feeling better than I have in a long time.

Overall I've probably had 7-8 sessions with them lasting 20-30 minutes each time. I can't definitively say that the success I've had the last few months is solely due to EMDR as when going through that rough patch I quickly realized I wasn't doing as well with tinnitus as I had thought, so I've rededicated myself to working on things, being positive, meeting with my therapist weekly (we don't do EMDR every meeting), and really just focusing on improving myself and my life. However, that being said I would definitely attribute at least some of the success I've had to EMDR.

I'm approaching 3 years of tinnitus this month, it's in both ears and is a constant ring that I'm nearly positive was caused by years of concerts, but possibly triggered by stress. I have some slight hearing loss around 4Khz. This summer I think I had a bit of a setback which seemed to make the ringing worse which drove me into that rough patch I spoke of above. I still hear the ringing just as much, I just seem to be less bothered/less focused on it since starting EMDR.

 

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing as a treatment for tinnitus

First published: 28 January 2019

https://doi.org/10.1002/lary.27841

Abstract
Objectives/Hypothesis
To determine the effectiveness of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) as a treatment for tinnitus.

Study Design
Single‐site prospective interventional clinical trial at a university hospital in the United Kingdom.

Methods
Participants were provided with tEMDR. This is a bespoke EMDR protocol that was developed specifically to treat individuals with tinnitus. Participants received a maximum of 10 sessions of tEMDR. Outcome measures including tinnitus questionnaires and mood questionnaires were recorded at baseline, discharge, and at 6 months postdischarge.

Results
Tinnitus Handicap Inventory and Beck Depression Inventory scores demonstrated a statistically significant improvement at discharge after EMDR intervention (P = .0005 and P = .0098, respectively); this improvement was maintained at 6 months postdischarge. There was also a moderate but not significant (P = .0625) improvement in Beck Anxiety Inventory scores.

Conclusions
This study has demonstrated that the provision of tEMDR has resulted in a clinically and statistically significant improvement in tinnitus symptoms in the majority of those participants who took part. Furthermore, the treatment effect was maintained at 6 months after treatment ceased. This study is of particular interest, as the study protocol was designed to be purposefully inclusive of a diverse range of tinnitus patients. However, as a small uncontrolled study, these results do not consider the significant effects of placebo and therapist interaction. Larger high‐quality studies are essential for the verification of these preliminary results.

Level of Evidence
4 Laryngoscope, 2019

 

It's cool, but I don't see any comparison with a control group & placebo group, so the data is not particularly useful unfortunately, except perhaps to be able to say "yeah it probably won't hurt you to try this".

Also confusing is the fact that they use THI and BDI as measured outcome, but then go on to say "resulted in a clinically and statistically significant improvement in tinnitus symptoms", of which only the psychological aspects are measured (they don't seem to measure intensity/volume for example).

 

New paper alert! @BritishTinnitus funded study assessing EMDR for #tinnitus has been published https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/lary.27841 …

You've already posted this study, but its interesting that BTA funded it.

 

I'm confused. What the heck is this? I read where someone is starting EMDR next month. What is it, some kind of eye/neck exercise? Can someone fill in the blanks for an old codger?

 

Back in about 2006 I did extensive EMDR. It is usually for PTSD. So in one sense it will help the person with the stress and distress inside their bodies and deal with that. The tinnitus is not the target.

It was not so successful for my tinnitus due in part to a therapist who was not qualified in the techinque.

 

Has anybody else tried this? Results?

 

I have done EMDR in the past for some other traumatic events in my life. For those who don’t know what it is, it’s actually a pretty simple thing mechanically. You get some kind of side-to-side stimulation that switches back and forth from left to right. The type of stimulation can be different; I’ve heard of a light bar with a row of LEDs that sweeps back and forth, to sounds played through headphones, to a therapist touching you lightly with something like a small wooden paddle. I personally have used a device that consisted of two small vibrating capsules and a controller box. You held one in each hand and my therapist controlled the intensity of the vibration and the speed at which it moved side to side.

During the therapy I focused on the upsetting memory while talking about it with my therapist, and my anxiety, fear, and anger would slowly lessen. It might sound like nonsense, but it helped me change my emotional response to some very upsetting memories.

I am working with a different therapist now, and we have just begun working on using EMDR to change my response to the tinnitus.

 

Just seen this. I had the light bar sweeping back and forth.

Unfortunately I only had one session as I had to move back abroad, but I will try it again at a later date.

I must admit it did seem like nonsense when I was doing it, but I'm pleased to hear it has worked for you.

 

No information (in this abstract) about cause of tinnitus.

EMDR in the Treatment of Chronic Subjective Tinnitus: A Systematic Review

Abstract
The aim of the current systematic review is to examine the efficacy of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy as treatment for chronic subjective tinnitus. Insights concerning the EMDR treatment method and the mechanisms could offer valuable therapeutic guidelines in tinnitus management. The systematic review was performed according to the PRISMA guidelines. PubMed (MEDLINE), the Cochrane Library, PSYNDEX, PsycINFO, and the Francine Shapiro Library were used as data sources. Included were studies with at least two patients with diagnosed chronic subjective tinnitus, with pre- and post-measurements, testing the effect of EMDR. Two experimental studies with a total of 49 tinnitus patients met the inclusion criteria. Both studies assessed tinnitus distress. The pre–post treatment effect size of the studies was calculated in one study (a medium between-effect size of Cohen’s dz = .72). The other eligible study described significant improvement in 64.3% of the participants. No adverse events or side effects were reported. Research on the application of EMDR as treatment for tinnitus is still in an early stage. Both studies present EMDR as effective treatment for tinnitus distress, at least for about 50% of the patients, and that the effect remains at 3 months’ follow-up. Recommendations for future research are provided.

Source: https://connect.springerpub.com/content/sgremdr/early/2020/08/05/emdr-d-20-00005

 

Is it working?

 

Well, abstract only and no statistical value.

What Has EMDR Taught Us About the Psychological Characteristics of Tinnitus Patients?

Tinnitus is a common and distressing symptom affecting at least 10% of the population. It is poorly understood. There are many proposed therapies but a significant lack of well-controlled trials. This study is a secondary analysis from our recent study to determine the effectiveness of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy as a treatment for tinnitus. It was designed as a single-site prospective interventional clinical trial and took place at a teaching hospital in the United Kingdom. Participants received a maximum of 10 sessions of EMDR. The EMDR used was a bespoke protocol: EMDR-for-tinnitus protocol (tEMDR). Outcome measures included evidence-based tinnitus and mood questionnaires recorded at baseline, discharge, and at 6 months post-discharge. The main outcome measure was the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory, and scores demonstrated a statistically significant improvement. Secondary analyses conducted indicate statistically significant improvement for tinnitus patients with and without probable posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) diagnoses. There was no significant decrease in depression and anxiety measures, however these were at the minimal range at the start. The purpose of this article is to describe the rationale behind the use of EMDR in tinnitus, the process of administrating a bespoke EMDR protocol, and the differences between tinnitus sufferers with differing experiences of trauma. To date our study is one of only two published studies investigating the use of EMDR for tinnitus; we therefore introduce an evolving and exciting application for EMDR therapy.

Source: https://connect.springerpub.com/content/sgremdr/14/4/229

 

I'm pretty sure that's the point. Most research is currently geared towards HRQoL and distress reduction rather than the tinnitus itself. Pretty messed up as far as I'm concerned, and was livid to see this being touted as some breakthrough treatment.