Namenda (Memantine)

I have tinnitus -- high-pitched ringing/hissing in my ears. Hearing tests have shown I have high frequency hearing loss. I'm also being treated for TMJ problems by a neuromuscular dentist.

My ENT doctor at UCLA has me trying 20mg of Namenda per day. It's a drug that's normally used to treat Alzheimer's disease. It works by reducing the amount of glutamate being produced by the brain, thereby softening or eliminating the ringing in my ears.

I've been on the Namenda for about 5 weeks. I can't really tell if it's working or not. Most days, the ringing is still very loud, but some days it's softer. Still ringing 24/7, though.

Anybody here have any luck with Namenda (memantine)?

 

Hi Jason,

I havent tried it but its one of the drugs that came up as of potential benefit in my reaearch. Sometimes the drugs are dose-dependant meaning that it wont work until you are taking enough! Maybe now its been 5 weeks your doctor could increase the dose to see if that works. Have you researched any studies on it on the net? They usually tell you what dose the drugs were trialled on.

Good luck.

 

Hi Jason,

I'm not intending to hijack this thread, but since you're in LA, I was wondering if you checked out, or know anything about this guy http://www.drstubbeman.com/ who claims some success treating tinnitus with transcranial magnet stimulation. See the Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) under Treatments in this forum.

mick

 

Erik,

Clonazepam works very well for me. I know its a GABA agonist but do you know if its also an NMDA Antagonist? Thanks.

 

Louise,
What is your clonazepam dosage?

 

I took 3-4 mg of clonazepam for about a month. It did nothing for my tinnitus.

 

Yes, I know all about him. My ENT also knows him (was one of his students at UCLA). We're both highly skeptical. He's a heck of a salesman, though!

 

Thanks for the replies, but I'd like to hear from some people who have actually tried Namenda/Memantine.

Anybody?!

 

Erik, do you know if Clonazepam is also an NMDA Antagonist as well as a GABA agonist.

Sorry Jason, a smal hijacking

 

Hi Risto, its 0.5mg. I took it once a week at first (trying not to become addicted) but things got bad so I've been taking it every night now for one whole week. The trouble with it is that the effects may wear off and then you need a higher dose. Im not going to do that if it comes to it.

 

Jason, I never heard of that drug, but was interested if your TMJ disorder could be causing your T. Is your T in both ears or just the one with TMD? I have mild TMD with no pain, but the TMJ doc said that was likely causing my T. He has a good youtube (Dr. Hakala). I was prescribed a elastic mandibular advancer. I said WTH is that? Its a oral appliance dummy, he said. Just kidding on that.

 

Ok,thanks.My t has gotten worse lately.Started having troubles with sleeping ,and thats where .5 clonatsepam seems to help.I have used it before for other problems (strange facial pain and burning sensation).Went up to 2mg and stayed there 2,5 years.I didnt have any problems stopping it in 6 weeks.O.5 is such a low dose,Iwouldnt worry taking it.

 

Wow really? The thing is though Risto we all react differently to drugs and whilst one person doenst build a dependance another person might. I've seen two doctors and they HATE Benzos and dont prescribe them. I only got them because I saw yet another doctor who I persuaded to let me just try to see if it brought the noise down.

However, it does make me feel better that you were on a higher dose for ages and had no trouble. Thanks.

 

Well, after taking the maximum dose of 40mg per day for 5 months, I can confidently say that Namenda (Memantine) did absolutely NOTHING to alleviate my tinnitus! So, I'm on to trying prescription hearing aids (I have high frequency hearing loss, which is likely causing or contributing to the tinnitus). We'll see if this helps. I pick them up on Wednesday. Stay tuned!

 

Good luck! I likewise have high frequency hearing loss, and the hearing aids have helped lessen my tinnitus. It's still there and cycles--like it's always done--but the tinnitus is better. Surprisingly, the hearing aids helped with my sleep. I've taken 3mg time-released melatonin since October, 2012, but I never slept through the night until about two weeks into my hearing aids. Now, I usually sleep right through. That's a small miracle!

Be aware that the hearing aids may temporarily increase your tinnitus at first. That's just your brain getting used to the new sounds. It will settle down. Some people freak out if their tinnitus spikes at first, and they quit wearing the hearing aids. My audiologist told me to wear them as much as possible--to help my brain adapt. My spike only lasted a few days then I went back to normal. In a few weeks, I did notice a diminishment of the tinnitus, and I had steady improvement for about a month. Then my tinnitus returned to its old patterns: a few good days followed by one or two bad ones. (Lately, I've had more bad days than good, but that's how it is with tinnitus: unpredictable.) But the sound is generally more tolerable, as noted earlier, and overall I'm glad I'm wearing them.

Overall, studies stuggest that about half of individuals with high frequency hearing loss do benefit from the hear aids. You should have 30 days to test drive them. Your brain takes about five or six months to adapt to the hearing aids. I'm thinking that time period will also coincide with whatever improvement the hearing aids will do.

 

I will be interested in your evaluation of your hearing aids as I am considering them also, the Starkey Xino Tinnitus model. I will be tuned. Thanks

 

Well, I've been wearing the hearing aids for about 3 months now ("open-ear" type made by Oticon) to make up for my high-frequency hearing loss. While I can definitely hear better, the hearing aids have done NOTHING for my tinnitus.

 

Hi Jason,

Sorry to read the hearing aids did not help you. They do help the majority of people, but with tinnitus no treatment is one hundred percent.

Are you getting counseling? You might try TRT (tinnitus retraining therapy with noise maskers) or CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy). These might also help you. We all want a cure, but in the meantime we need strategies to help us cope!

Stay strong and keep trying!

 

15 months of TMJ therapy by a "neuromuscular dentist" (wearing a dental orthotic and using a TENS machine to relax my jaw) did absolutely nothing to help my tinnitus, despite his verbal assurances that it would. Now I'm wearing braces to fix the mess he made of my teeth! :/ Stay away from anybody claiming to be a "neuromuscular dentist" -- it's pure snake oil and not an approved form of dentistry by the American Dental Association. Too bad I had to learn this lesson the hard way. Please learn from my mistake!!

 

I came THIS CLOSE to trying bite splint therapy after an orthodontist said it would alleviate the T. It was going to cost $2700, but I'd pay anything to get the noise to stop. But I decided to do some research first, and learned that it could cause more harm than good. The TMJ Assoc. does not recommend any procedures that cause permanent changes to one's bite. Here's a quote from their site:
"There is no medical or dental specialty of qualified experts trained in the care and
treatment of TMJ patients. As a result, there are no established standards of care in clinical practice. Although a variety of health care providers advertise themselves as “TMJ specialists,” the more than 50 different treatments available today are based largely on beliefs, not on scientific evidence. Sir William Osler, the father of modern medicine, said that when there are many treatments for a single condition, it is because none of them work."

 

I have had 2 months of TMJ Physical Therapy and it has done nothing for my T.

 

It does not sound promising on TMJ disorder causing T, but we all need hope. I am going to this clinic next week for TMD or neck problems causing my head noise. If it is all inner ear or brain based T then I'm wasting my time also.

http://www.thefacialpaincenter.com/

 

Hope it works for you...I just discontinued myofascial/neck therapy after 7 weeks (twice a week). It did make my neck feel better, but did not help my somatic T.

 

Sorry to hear it didn't help your T. Are you sure @DebS that your tinnitus is somatic? This is a old thread on somatic T at DS Tinnitus:http://www.dailystrength.org/c/Tinnitus/forum/6659570-somatic-tinnitus

 

Thanks for the link; there's some very useful info there. Yes, my T is neck and jaw related; it started after getting 2 crowns. I can make the T louder by touching my TMJ or turning my neck. The therapist gave me exercises to do for my jaw and neck, and I am trying to correct my posture. I'm hopeful the T will ease up over time if the jaw/neck issues get better. I couldn't afford to keep up with the PT, so I'm trying on my own. I'm also doing some yoga stress-relief DVDs which seem to help a little.

 

Bump. This drug is very safe compare to other ones. Is there anyone who tried it? I saw a man cured his T as long as he is on it but he got some sifr effects and need to quit.

 

I was once considering this drug as there are a lot of anecdotal reports of it reducing t. Studies however have been a bit confusing. One reached the conclusion that mem is not helpful, another concluded that it might be beneficial for acoustic trauma related t. Go figure.
I find that Alzheimer's drugs have been proposed by some as a treatment for tinnitus.
It's worth a try as it is supposed to be relatively safe. A bit on the expensive side though.