Naltrexone as a Tinnitus Treatment

First off, I am so sorry you are experiencing this type of tinnitus.

I have had the pain and pressure that I described as a "wet saw cutting into the back of my head". Lots of inner ear pressure. I also suffered from aural migraines twice, where my vision was highly distorted with the round rainbow Kaleidoscope circle that slowly expanded until gone. The pressure and pain was in the ear and the electrical cutting knife pain was always directly in the middle of the back side of my skull.

My cicadas are exactly as you described, "waves" of un-synced sounds from both sides in fluctuating loudness and intensity. I would experience the pain and fullness of an ear infection, go to the doctor only to be told my ears were clear and that I was experiencing "nerve disorder" that was giving me all these false sensations when nothing was there. I also have a constant electrical hiss and 2 pure tones. All these were very loud, constant, and often changed sounds. On occasion at night or early morning when I awoke, it sounded like someone was scrambling broken electrical glass shards. That's the best way I can describe it. I would experience stabbing sharp pains deep in my ears that were so severe at times that they took me down to one knee. Like someone stabbed me with a sharp pencil. Those pains were not constant although the sounds were and ever changing. The pains and pressures both would come and go. I have not experienced the pain or the pressure since stabilizing on my 25 mg Naltrexone daily regiment.

I hope this answers your questions. Please let me know if I can be of more assistance. God Bless.

PS. I wish I was smart enough to know how to post my last audiogram, as that may be beneficial for someone to know the degree of hearing loss I have for whatever reason.

 

Hi @Johnny Karate,

Did your tinnitus calm down with 25 mg Naltrexone? If so, how many percent did it improve?

I will also try this medication in the next months.

 

Yes it did. Please read back through this thread as I go into detail about the relief I have experienced.

 

I wonder why some people have the pain feeling and for others, it’s just a sound.

What is causing that pain? Is it the frequency? Maybe when the tinnitus is a specific frequency, the brain interprets it as a feeling, too, and it’s painful because encountering that sound in real life would be painful. I dunno. Why do some zaps not cause pain, like with @Marshall, but mine do? What’s going on in the brain? I know some that have a low frequency hum, which I also have, experience vibration sensations. I have the vibration, too, and I think it’s because of the way the brain’s interpreting how that frequency should feel. It’s annoying, but not painful. So the brain, being dumb like it is, tortures itself with vibrations and electrical shocks because of some phantom, made-up sounds that aren’t real. Such a damn shame that our brains fail us in these cases.

 

I’m so sorry man is it really loud plus pain or is it like a zap with pain?

 

Thanks, man. It varies pain-wise. It’s generally pretty loud, where it can’t be masked. But the pain aspect changes by the minute and hour. Sometimes, it’s mild or feels like steam escaping through the ear(s). Sometimes, it’s like electrical currents and sharp zaps. At the moment, it’s pretty volatile and aggressive.

 

I wonder if PEA (Palmitoylethanolamide) could help you?

 

I took my first dose one week ago today. I am slowly titrating up to the recommended dosage. Adding one-eighth every few days, because meds screw with me. Still, on day two, I had a pretty intense reaction to only a 6.25 mg crumb.

I am at 18.75 mgs, side effects have subsided, no change otherwise. I'll be up to 25 mg by Sunday, and I intend to slowly go up to 50 mg. After one week I have noticed no effect.

Other than a spike in my tinnitus over night, but that is probably because I just started taking Amlodipine, an antihypertensive, yesterday. Whatever. I'm just tired.

 

Mine only zaps in my left ear. I went from baby tinnitus to catastrophic in a span of 4 months while giving every ounce of my energy trying to prevent it from getting worse. I feel pretty defeated.

 

What caused it to get worse? I’m sorry to hear this. Very similar to me.

 

I started with tinnitus out of nowhere. I took Prednisone. It got way worse. It became a different frequency, super high pitch. It was getting better over 2 months and then I gave myself a barotrauma doing that Valsalva. And then I gave myself another barotrauma on accident. My luck. So now I have low tone and high tones in my left ear with the zapping. And a weird portal of noises in my right ear. And that ear gets red, painful, and changes with bending over or reaching up. It’s a lot man. My life took a 180.

 

Are you thinking of trying Naltrexone, @Marshall? I’m sorry to hear about these immense struggles. I totally understand.

 

I’m scared of every drug at the moment. Prednisone scared me.

 

I understand. I’m in the same position... where I feel like I can’t risk worsening. It’s like we’ve burnt our 9 lives. But at the same time, I feel like this is no way to live. Like something's gotta be done.

 

Prednisone was hell for me but I got better post. Were you using Valsalva for lifting?

 

I’m watching out for that nerve blocking thing going on in Korea. I will take a loan out immediately.

 

Actually no, I used to when I squatted but never had any issues. I was popping my ears because my tinnitus ear at the time, the eardrum wouldn’t push so I was trying to get it to move and it messed up my right ear. I wasn’t even doing it hard.

 

I’m watching it, too. It seems promising for many. I worry about that one (for me, specifically) because I had a bad spike from Lidocaine. So I dunno if I can do it. A lot of folks are okay with Lidocaine.

 

Anyone figure out if Naltrexone has any effect on hyperacusis?

 

I take 50 mg of Naltrexone a day and also 4.5 mg of LDN that I dissolve myself in water.

I would say my tinnitus, although noise-induced, worsens with inflammation. When I am on Prednisone it completely goes away. Since starting Naltrexone I am having many more good days.

I also may have intracranial hypertension. Gonna get a lumbar puncture to confirm. If I do, I can take meds for it and may finally completely habituate.

I also take Klonopin .5 mg 3 times a day, Gabapentin 600 mg, Prozac, and Elavil. Quite a cocktail.

I am 2 years in and finally feel I am turning the corner. I would recommend Naltrexone to anybody with tinnitus. It is a relatively safe med. If your doctor won’t prescribe it, see a psychiatrist. Having a psychiatrist on board was a pivotal move that has me finally going in the right direction.

 

@T Toledo OH, good to hear you're seeing improvements. I have a couple of questions:

-Do you have hyperacusis?
-What kind of tinnitus do you have? Is it the type that is electrical feeling and high frequency?

I have the electrical, piercing tinnitus that causes sensations of physical pain in the ear, like currents shocking me. I’m looking into options and trying to figure out if any medications might help. Thanks.

 

50 mg of Naltrexone is not much? Can you take it for how long? No side effects? I know it can cause liver problems.

 

It can cause liver problems, but that's why they do blood tests. (I'm having blood work done on Thursday.) In most patients, it is not a problem. I know of Sinclair Method patients who have been taking 50 mg of Naltrexone daily for a decade or longer. After a bumpy first few days, I'm experiencing no side effects at all now. 50 mg is the standard dose. I infer that some people in the tiny (14 subject) De Ridder / Vanneste tinnitus study were given doses higher than 50 mg. But they concluded, "Excellent results have been achieved with a naltrexone dosage of 50 mg/day."

Fourteen patients completed the trial. Two patients underwent the baseline assessment but then decided not to start drug treatment. Two patients stopped drug treatment because of side effects. Both patients experienced nausea and vomiting, one patient additionally stomach ache. Symptoms resolved completely after treatment was stopped. All further data refer to those 14 patients, who completed treatment as planned (per protocol analysis).

Improvement of tinnitus (according to CGI) was reported by nine patients. In five of these nine patients tinnitus remitted completely during the naltrexone treatment. In one patient the tinnitus stopped after few days of treatment, in one patient after 2 weeks, in one after 4 weeks and in two patients after 8 weeks of treatment. After stopping naltrexone, tinnitus started again in one patient, however on a lower level than before treatment. The complete remission of tinnitus was reflected by a complete or near complete reduction of the scores in the different used assessment instruments (Figures 1 ,2). The tinnitus duration in those patients in which tinnitus remitted completely ranged between 3 months and 9 years.

Treatment of tinnitus and related auditory dysfunctions​

I'm not sure why this tiny but encouraging pilot study wasn't followed by a larger one. Funding, I suppose. And nobody gets excited about a drug that was first synthesized in 1962 (and approved and marketed in 1984).

-Geoff

 

Completely!

 

What kind of tinnitus is Naltrexone helpful for? More in the head or in the ears?

 

I also don’t understand why they don’t look deeper into Naltrexone.

If the results were so good, why didn’t they perform another study with more patients? Why some report success and others have no benefit... The researchers need to closely look on that.

 

I do not have hyperacusis thank God. My tinnitus is high pitch tea kettle sounding and in constant not pulsated. Ever since I got it from being to close to a guitar amp I have had days and even weeks where it would go away and then come back very intense. I feel now that I am stabilized and can manage it, thanks to the passing of time and the meds I take, which I eventually hope to ween off of.

 

Yes but I do get my liver checked every few months. No side effects that I have experienced.

 

Did you increase the dosage slowly? I want to try it and don't know with what dosage to start with.

 

What other meds are you on that help? Does the Naltrexone lower tinnitus or just your perception of it? It is supposed to have anti-inflammatory effects too.