Need advice . . .

My name is Mike. I've had tinnitus for more than 7 years. The onset of the tinnitus was approximately 4 weeks after a car accident in which I experienced a neck injury [whip lash]. I've had MRI's and X-Rays and neither showed anything remarkable. The past 3 years my tinnitus was under-control. I had been taking 0.5mg two times each day of Klonopin from January 2009 to November 2012 nearly 4 years.

In September of this year I was in a bicycling accident in which I collided with a car and re-injured my neck. My tinnitus didn't change until the end of October. I was taking Percocet prescribed by my doctor for pain. I took a double dose and it made me nauseated and made my tinnitus raise in volume. I was sure that after sleeping off the nausea things would go back to usual but the tinnitus never went back down in volume. It's intolerable! And this is after 7 years of living with tinnitus.

The doctor raised my Klonopin prescription by 1.0mg to 1.5mg daily. This lowered the volume to an extent but it's still intolerable. I don't want to live like this. I'm in New York and if anyone has any ENT's or psychiatrists that they've had positive experience with I'm very interested.

 

Hi Mike, I looked up Percocet and according to what I found that it is an ototoxic painkiller. Double dosing such as you did could have made an already bad situation worse. I would suggest changing your diet to try to detox yourself. I've also read that vitamins B12 and a B50 complex are good at somewhat protecting the ears from ototoxcity.
I hope it does go down for you again to a more manageable level.

 

The (re)onset of the tinnitus does correspond in time with the Percocet however I'm still suspicious that it was the catalyst. My feeling is that I re-injured my neck and smacked my jaw pretty hard in the bike accident and that only after several weeks (09/10 to 10/31) did my ears, the ear muscles and TM joint react. Is there evidence to support Percocet or the active ingredient oxycodone to be ototoxic? I've been off the Percocet for 3 weeks, so it has definitely worked its way out of my system.

 

Can you point me to a list of ototoxic medications?

 

Brooklyn -
Here's a list of ototoxic medicines: http://www.ata.org/sites/ata.org/fi...by_League_for_Hard_of_Hearing_2012_Jul_12.pdf

The list is big, and may not accurate. I have read that there are actually very few ototoxic medicines that can damage the ear. Certain antibiotics are the worst. But a lot of these medicines which are called "ototoxic" are actually just exciting the nervous system (like caffeine).

You may want to see a neurologist, because this must be neck injury related. There is a brainstem organ called the dorsal cochlear nucleus where a whole lot of different types of nerves are coming together, including auditory nerves. Injury to the neck can result in tinnitus. This type of injury should be looked at by a neurologist who understands the implications of tinnitus.