Neuroscience May Offer Hope to Millions Robbed of Silence by Tinnitus

Chronic tinnitus affects millions of Americans, and is the most widely reported disability among veterans. New research reveals the roots of the disease lie deep within the brain, and experimental therapies are providing hope for a cure.

Pretty good article: Neuroscience may offer hope to millions robbed of silence by tinnitus | PBS NewsHour | Nov. 6, 2013 | PBS

 

Great find @mick! However, does this mean that the possibility of a cure in the near future is out of the question because tinnitus is even more complex than once thought? Or have these findings advanced our ability to possibly treat this condition faster? Just thinking out loud...

 

monkeys sure do weird stuff

 

As many you probably already know: Was a fairly extensive show on PBS (U.S. public radio) last night regarding tinnitus. Several friends texted me that it was on, although I was busy and could not see it. Havent even had a chance to read all the way through the story, but here it is:

Neuroscience may offer hope to millions robbed of silence by tinnitus | PBS NewsHour | Nov. 6, 2013 | PBS

I was heartened to see they apparently paid a lot of attention to the neurological and psychological components of this difficult disorder. Maybe this finally will bring us some attention.

 

Lady Di -
Great article. Gives us hope.

Not sure that I agree with the idea that depression may cause tinnitus. I believe the ATA has pursued this idea previously, trying to make a serotonin connection. Let's hope that the ATA isn't kicking a dead horse.

The comments at the end are very interesting. Read "Pegzch's" comment. Said that she takes 0.5 mg Klonapin, and her tinnitus goes away. I know that many here have tried that, but with variable success.

In one comment, a musician said that he cured himself by determining the notes of his tinnitus (?). Said he wrote a paper that can be downloaded for free.

In another comment, someone suggested an interesting idea: Go to a piano, find the pitch of your tinnitus, then start playing the same note two octaves below the tinnitus pitch. That's a new one I never heard before.

- Karl

 

I like the fact they say will find a cure, how far away??

 

I'm pretty sure horse kicking can be found in their mission statement.

 

That is the 64K question! We should be thankful.... Tinnitus is not the most glamourous of conditions, yet there are some great dedicated scientists/researchers working for answers. PBS features like this can only help raise awareness....

 

Great that awareness is being made, I can't believe how common this condition is and how little warnings or awareness being done. Do you really believe they will find a treatment in our lifetime? I hope if they do or dont I will be so used to it by then that I may not care?

 

As terrible as it is, I think that the number of veterans in the US having tinnitus and the fact that the DoD and VA now recognize them as disabilities has been a huge blessing for tinnitus awareness and research.

@lana,

As far as a treatment goes, I honestly believe that a treatment for acute onset tinnitus will be available within the next 5 years. Now people said that 10 years ago when I first got tinnitus, but 10 years ago there were not 3 or 4 companies with the financial backing of big pharmaceutical companies that had treatments in Phase 1, 2, or much less 3 clinical trials, as they do now. I am very optimistic about Auris Medical, Otonomy inc, Sound Pharmaceuticals, and Microtransponder. Beyond that, there are several academic laboratories in the US, UK, and Canada that I know of that are looking at various treatment models as well. I personally believe that Auris will gain approval for their AM-101 drug, and we're probably looking at a 2 year time window for that to take place. That's all my own speculation though.

The next 10 years in my opinion will also be a watershed moment for treatment of tinnitus and hearing disorders. There are too many people with tinnitus and hearing loss for pharmaceutical companies and medical technology companies to continue to more or less ignore it as an untouchable market. The science is there, and the money certainly is. The fact that so many people have tinnitus is the single biggest reason why you can bet your cookies there will be some sort of successful treatment. There's too much money in it. Luckily for us, tinnitus is not some obscure disorder that effects only 1 in 1,000,000. The money is there, it's only a matter of time for a company to tap that.

 

It's actually a bit freakish how many people have it. I have a friend who has had anxiety as bad as I do and he has tinnitus from going to a shitload of clubs in his day and it literally doesn't phase him. When I first got it and was complaining about it he just told me "Dude I can hear that ringing too, I don't see what the problem is"

Silence is too glorious to not care about. I've luckily had some moments of silence since I got it but hopefully we get a way to control that silence in the future.

 

Indeed true, if you start talking about it, it is stunning how many people have more or less a kind of T. Even my girlfriend has a beep and can hear it when see search for it! But again isn't bothered by it all!
As you stated; many say, I hear it too but it doesn't bother me!
So many do not care (yet). Which worries me for them as a part of them will face the same as us. Especially the youth numbers are scarry!!!

I think a lot (of course not all) has to do with the volume and the kind of T. I, if I may take myself as an example; Before my 'real' outbreak almost 3 months ago, already had a kind of T, probably for many many years, but it didn't bother me at all (it was a soft kind of white noise / static which I actually liked at some moments when trying to sleep. If I knew better than I would have started to protect my ears right away, see also my start of my reply!!!). However, since a beep appeared (left ear 4kHz) suddenly everything changed and for me it became annoying etc... The beep is more or less gone but the static/white noise evel in my left ear increased. Still dunno know whether this is because of a noise trauma or that my attention to it has changed (I believe the first but I never will be sure).

I hope for you that the days of silence will increase. For me the mornings are always nice (less T, slowly increasing over the course of the day).

 

Good to see that you are optimistic. For me this is still a bit hard to imagine (recent onset). But I hope your feelings become true.

 

If it takes them more than 10 years to come up with a temporary pill treatment (something that lasts for short periods of time even) then the researchers are doing it horribly wrong.

Given the work the Hearing Restoration Project is doing, if we don't have some sort of inner-ear restoration in my lifetime their job will have been a failure. That group is definitely doing some good work though and their goal of 10 years to clinical trial seems very doable. It also helps that there's a number of researcher teams around the globe trying to achieve similar goals.

The fact that in today's age we already have some ways of treating it and lowering the volume of it shows me that we're on our way to figuring out some legitimate consumer treatments.

 

The military is throwing massive amounts of money behind HL and T research. It is their #1 disability claim and in 2012 cost an estimate $1.5 billion for all branches.

 

Man...is it just me, or was that video inspiring and extremely depressing at the same time? haha...