Hyperacusis/Reactive Tinnitus Caused by Prednisone: Looking for Advice

Hello all,

Looking for some advice for my current situation. I have had high anxiety throughout this ordeal and looking for some encouragement. Apologies for the wall of text but appreciate you reading. Here's my story:

A few weeks ago, I was watching TV in the evening and had a sudden onset of loud ringing in my left ear followed by muffled hearing in that same ear. I would say that sound was reduced by about 30-50%.

The following morning, my left ear was still ringing and muffled. I read online that I may have sudden sensorineural hearing loss and that I should see an ENT as soon as possible. I scheduled an appointment for that same day and the ENT prescribed me with a 7 day + 4 day taper of Prednisone (60 mg per day for first 7 days).

The next day after taking Prednisone my muffled hearing was almost back to normal, but I still had ringing in the left ear. After the third day of taking Prednisone, the ringing had disappeared, and my hearing was 100% back to normal. I continued with the 11-day treatment of Prednisone as instructed.

Shortly after I finished the prednisone, I began noticing that my ears felt a bit more sensitive to sound than usual. The left ear more sensitive than the right. It almost feels like there is a tightness to it. Additionally, and more annoyingly, all sound is accompanied by a ringing sound. Things like running water from a faucet or even white noise seem to cause the ringing to be the loudest, but it happens with quitter sounds as well, like rubbing fabric together. If I plug my ears, I hear no ringing. From what I've read, I seem to have 'reactive tinnitus'.

I had a follow-up with the ENT who assured me that this is normal, and my ears need time to adjust. They said my ears went through a shock and need time to heal. They specifically mentioned it sounds like hyperacusis and said within 1-2 months it would recover 100% and the ringing would go away. They also recommended Magnesium and threshold conditioning. During the ENT visit I also had a hearing test (audiogram) that confirmed I had hearing in the normal range and no issues there. I opted to skip the loudness test to avoid triggering the tinnitus.

I hadn't been sleeping or eating and was finally able to sleep almost a full night after hearing this good news. However, my mind is my greatest enemy and the doubt started to creep back in.

I did more googling. Read some success stories and some terrible ones. I am nowhere near as bad as some of the posts here. I do not have pain with the hyperacusis. But still the unknowing keeps me awake at night.

Through my googling I found a new concept, ototoxicity, and learned that Prednisone is ototoxic. Now I fear that I have permanently damaged my hearing with a poison. Maybe I panicked and should have just waited a few days to see if my hearing would have returned on its own.

Looking for any experiences or suggestions. Most of the Hyperacusis/tinnitus here seems to be from loud noise exposure and not ototoxicity. Is there anyone who has gone through a similar experience? Is there any hope for me recovering?

Thank you.

 

I have the same type of reactive tinnitus. But I had it even before taking Prednisone. Do you also get it when listening to any digital audio? How does music sound?

I really would like to use sound enrichment but white/pink etc. noise only sounds great for 5 minutes until it slowly starts sounding like the speaker is going to explode or an airplane taking off. It even sounds the same when I wake up to it.

 

For a couple of months my ears would scream anytime they heard any sort of forced air (fans, air vents, etc.) This has pretty much gone away though. Very rarely do these sounds effect me anymore and when they do it's pretty mild.

Hopefully you get better.

 

Thank you for the encouragement. Was yours also caused by Prednisone? Did you do anything special, or did it just go away eventually?

Some digital audio is OK. But when there is too much noise at the same time, it tends to set it off. For example, metal music is especially bad.

 

Mine was from a concert I wish I never went to. I mostly just protected my ears and took some supplements. Not sure how much the supplements helped but they didn't hurt.