Mindfulness Meditation Versus Relaxation Therapy in the Management of Tinnitus

Psychotherapeutic interventions have been adopted effectively in the management of tinnitus for a long time. This study compared mindfulness meditation and relaxation therapy for management of tinnitus.

In this randomised controlled trial, patients were recruited for five sessions of mindfulness meditation or five sessions of relaxation therapy. Patients’ responses were evaluated using the Tinnitus Reaction Questionnaire as a primary outcome measure, and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, visual analogue scale and a health status indicator as secondary outcome measures.

A total of 86 patients were recruited. Thirty-four patients completed mindfulness meditation and 27 patients completed relaxation therapy. Statistically significant improvement was seen in all outcome measures except the health status indicator in both treatment groups. The change in treatment scores was greater in the mindfulness meditation group than in the relaxation therapy group.

This study suggests that although both mindfulness meditation and relaxation therapy are effective in the management of tinnitus, mindfulness meditation is superior to relaxation therapy.


https://www.cambridge.org/core/jour...-of-tinnitus/44E8421E74029C4970D53FFA26025004


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Interesting study I thought as they only delivered 5 intervention sessions for each group and the benefits were seen at the conclusion of the study, whereas in some other mindfulness studies the benefits DURING the treatment period were minimal, but increased significantly over the followup period as participants continued their practice.

The participants had intrusive tinnitus and on average their pre-treatment loudness was just under 7/10. There are many thoughts on how 'severe' is 'severe' on this forum but I'd say thats definitely "moderate" tinnitus or greater.

Drop out rates were reasonable, especially for a mind-body research program in a distressed population. The findings in the mindfulness group of a ~ 50% reduction in tinnitus awareness & also in tinnitus severity was impressive, but even more so a 2 point (on a 0-10 scale) on tinnitus loudness itself was pretty significant given that many interventions reduce awareness or distress but not loudness. Most of the tests were between group rather than pre-post, which is a shame as it would be interesting to see which were significantly different from baseline, as the relaxation group is an active control, rather than a placebo. While the trial had reasonable numbers for a mind-body intervention, the small numbers would also have prevented possible between group differences from being significant.

 

great, but we want a proper biological/neurological fix to hearing loss and Tinnitus. Wish these studies wouldn't even happen, you don't need to do a study to come to the conclusion that meditation and mindfullness helps with stress and health problems. Complete waste of time on their behalf!

 

I disagree. We're 50+ years from an actual cure, people deserve proven therapies that lessen their suffering.

Mindfullness was not proven to help with tinnitus until now.

 

50+ years from what, a cure of tinnitus or heairng loss? they'll figure out hearing loss before tinnitus. You can't even give a timeframe because neither do you or medical experts know. I'll go out on a limb and say that they'll figure out how to restore hearing loss before fixing tinnitus (even that might get rid of T for some people who have it from loud noise). Mindfullness has not been proven to help with tinnitus until now? This has been known for at least a decade, do some research .

e- you realise mindfullness is part of cognitive behavioural therapy right? which has been used since what, the 80s and 90s at least.

 

Can I know on what source you base your 50+ years expectation? Of course, the very first treatments will not be the most effective ones, but to say we are at least 50+ years away from relief is quite a pessimistic view in my opinion.

I think the first treatments that bring some relief will arrive much sooner. Maybe it will not bring complete relief for severe sufferers and/or the heavily damaged, but a lot of people do not even need much improvement to make their life a lot more bearable.

I am still positive the various hearing restoration projects currently going on will bring some (yet to be determined) level of relief not too far into the future.