Naltrexone as a Tinnitus Treatment

The effect of naltrexone on the perception and distress in tinnitus: an open-label pilot study

"Overall tinnitus distress was significantly reduced for the drug treatment group, while for the waiting control group this was not the case"

 

Waiting control group didn't get a placebo drug, they didn't get anything, of course active treatment group improved. Active treatment group would've improved with a sugar pill too.

 

I tried it at 3mg/day for a while.

Not willing to take 50mg/day for any length of time, as in the study. Drug is old and fairly well documented, but tinkering mechanically with dopaminergic reward pathways seems dangerous.

 

I was prescribed 25mg for tinnitus but after further research I have decided not to ingest any Naltrexone as of yet. My doctor agreed this was an ok decision to make.

 

I am on low-dose Naltrexone. Day 5 currently. The idea here is to titrate up to 4.5mg daily as a maximum. This is meant to help battle any auto-immune issues if that is in fact the cause of my problems. I have neuropathy pain as well and that is the original reason for the Naltrexone.

 

@Matthew Piecora, hello, I was wondering if you would like to let us know if you continued on LDN and if it has helped you much with the tinnitus? Thank you so much!

 

There is some interesting research looking at an opioid like peptide called dynorphins in the cochlea and why opioid receptor blockers may help (hard to say if low or high dose is appropriate for this though):

Evidence for a dynorphin-mediated inner ear immune/inflammatory response and glutamate-induced neural excitotoxicity: an updated analysis

 

Did the LDN do anything for your tinnitus?

 

i don't really think so, ultimately.

 

I've been taking Naltrexone for about a month. The days I take it, my tinnitus just feels a bit less annoying. It's the only thing I've ever tried which did anything imo.

 

How much do you take?

 

The tabs are 50 mg so I chop them up in as close to 10ths as possible and take in the morning and before bed.

 

So 5 mg am and 5 mg pm?

 

Yes, exactly.

 

After reading about this, I went and got a 2 month supply of 50 mg from my doctor. Cut it in half, then in half again. Took it at 9 pm last night and slept like a baby for the first time in I don't know how long. I was worried it would give me panic attacks as I have suffered from those on and off for half my life. Wife kept me calm and so far the opposite has been true. I plan on upping my dose to 25 mg by Saturday night and then on to the full 50 mg by Wednesday of next week.

I will report back if it lowers my tinnitus (fingers crossed). God Bless.

 

Are you still doing well on 25 mg?

 

Yes. It has definitely lowered my tinnitus. I had tones "in both ears" prior. The right side is silent now and it lowered the volume of my overall tinnitus. 50 mg was too much and i suffered from panic attacks again while on that dosage. 25 mg is working good. I will most likely go to low dose in a month or so and ride that dosage until I run out. This has not cured me, but it is definitely a therapeutic in my case. I will fight to stay on this for life if my tinnitus returns to full strength after running out of meds.

 

Your doctor easily agreed to prescribe Naltrexone for tinnitus?

 

I am so happy for you.

Did your ear tinnitus ever fluctuate?

Did the Naltrexone lower your head noise?

I'd be interested to know if your tinnitus responds to Low-Dose Naltrexone?

Do you think the panic attack was in response to the actual spike you experienced on 50 mg? I know Naltrexone modulates Serotonin and Dopamine so maybe it had something to do with this?

Thank you so much for your willingness to report back here. I know it has given myself and others hope of some relief. I hope it continues to help you. Bless you.

 

No. I had to argue and plead with him. It got down to "do you ever drink alcohol?" I said yes. He said "okay we will put it down that you are trying to drink less." I said okay. He gave me a two month supply of 50 mg. I am taking 25 mg a day and plan on trying low dose 4.5 mg with my next refill so it lasts a lot longer.

I have seen online websites where you can get an online evaluation and a prescription for Naltrexone as well. Just have to look.

 

Anything to help. I have gotten many ideas from Tinnitus Talk and have tried a lot of the therapeutics folks have had some level of relief from. I am thankful and happy to contribute!

 

*Update*

I have stopped the 25 mg after experiencing panic attacks. Two panic attacks within 2 weeks.

Right now I plan on doing a week washout and then start on low dose 4.5 mg to see what that does.

For transparency reasons, I did take Zoloft over 6 years ago for generalized panic disorder. The Zoloft cured me but apparently I am still bent on having panic attacks given the correct chemical influences. SUCKS.

Naltrexone was actually helping me.

 

Thank you for your update.

 

Okay. My tinnitus went back up to 8/10 by the second day off the 25 mg. I took a low dose for 1 day and it did nothing. I know you are suppose to take it longer than that to get an effect. I decided that it was worth the risk and popped another 25 mg pill Thursday evening 3/24/22. I woke up to super low tinnitus. 2/10. I started eating lunch that day as I had been on OMAD and I did not have the usual panic attack. I have continued with the 25 mg again every night sense then and my tinnitus remains low. 2/10, maybe lower. I could not hear my tinnitus in a crowded room for the first time ever on Sunday at church. Usually its over everything 24/7.

Further proof that this is working is that i took medication on Friday night that always spikes my tinnitus to 9/10 for a least week or sometimes longer every time I take it. It only turned up the tinnitus to a 3/10! Also the spike only lasted 1 day. Back down to 2/10.

I plan on reporting my results to my doctor who did not want to prescribe this for my tinnitus so that he can know that it works for some and he can prescribe it to others. If it continues to stay this low while on Naltrexone I will attempt to take it for life. I still have tinnitus that I can hear all the time but the volume is lowered so much and the other tones I had have completely disappeared, that I consider myself cured compared to how I was. If my tinnitus stayed like this forever, I couldn't care less and wouldn't consider myself afflicted by it any longer.

If it comes back, I will return and let everyone now. Right now I consider this a success story and I am staying off the forums for the foreseeable future. Four years of severe very loud non stop tinnitus has gone down to a tiny whisper.

I thank God for this miracle. I thank Tinnitus Talk for sharing information. I pray that it helps someone else the way that it has helped me. This IS a therapeutic for some and I am living proof.

 

@Johnny Karate, really happy for you. Just to be clear, if you have it all the time, but it is a whisper, does that mean that you hear a whisper in noisy environments; or does it mean that you hear a whisper when it is quiet around you?

 

I think the most important point here is: moving from "severe very loud" to "tiny whisper" is the closest you can get to a cure as of today.

This is a success story.

I would even say that even if his tinnitus comes back, the proof that something already helped him once can be so inspiring and motivating on a psychological point of view that he would face new spikes from a different perspective.

 

I think I may try Naltrexone for my acoustic trauma.

 

Thank you Uklawyer.

I can still hear the whisper depending on how noisy the environment is. It's what is referred to as "head noise" commonly in the forums. My church is one open room with about 100 people all talking. I was speaking to another tinnitus sufferer telling them about the Naltrexone and I noticed that I had to "search" for the noise and even when I did I wasn't sure that I actually was hearing it in that environment.

Prior to Naltrexone even when I had the bath water running full blast in the tub with my head over the side next to the gushing water it was still easily heard. Un-maskable at any safe level. I heard it over my zero turn mower (granted with both earplugs and earmuffs on.)

I still have 24/7 tinnitus. I still wear earmuffs in Church while we are singing. I will continue to take all the same old precautions. The volume is just lowered and I went from electrical train brakes, electrical frying pan, cicadas, and multi low and mid pure drone type tones to a small electrical whisper. Like a pure high tone now. It is very "small". I can imagine for some it would be horrible but for me, starting out with horrendous tinnitus caused by SSHL from drugs that sounded and felt like an electrical wet saw cutting through the back of my head, this is nothing. I went from bad days of tinnitus being so loud I could not hear my own voice when I spoke quietly to having to listen for it in a crowded room of talking people. It still fluctuates a little especially when I wake at night it seems to be louder, but when I wake up and get ready for work it's back down to the 2/10.

If you try it, don't let fluctuations scare you from continuing. I had 2 terrible spikes, louder than I have ever heard hit me at the beginning of all this. They only lasted about an hour a piece. Even after suffering panic attacks, the relief was so great I decided it was worth it to continue on. That is a testament to how much of a difference it has made so far for me. I do not hear silence but I do not suffer like I did. I could compare my experience like this: If tinnitus was a sharp object, then prior to Naltrexone I was being stabbed by a kitchen knife in the lower back, as to were now I am getting a shot in the arm with a butterfly needle.

 

@Johnny Karate, what dosage do you take?

Is it low dose like 4.5 mg? Or do you take more? I couldn’t figure out by your feedback here. I will also try it.