New Trial: An fMRI investigation of the Effects of Lidocaine on Tinnitus

Hi - I've been reading more about Lidocaine as a potentially effective tinnitus suppression therapy. It appears that Massachusetts Ear & Eye is trying to advance their understanding of this drug's efficacy for tinnitus with a new clinical trial that has not yet started recruiting. They are looking for tinnitus patients with normal hearing, and hearing loss, so it's quite inclusive. Looks to be a one-day event.

Lidocaine has shown some promise, but I believe further research is needed to prove safety and efficacy, longer term. However, it is good to know that it is available already and in the market.

https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04192773?recrs=abf&cond=tinnitus&draw=2&rank=8

 

Lidocaine helps tonnes of headringers but its effect is short lived and you can't be hooked up on it 24/7.

 

Hopefully they'll learn something new that will help advance our understanding, leading to a safe therapy.

 

This is actually a good idea.

Putting lidocaine in us and using an fMRI to see exactly what parts of the brain it's affecting when it quiets ringing could be very useful to finding treatments, and refine the ones that are already underway.

 

From what I remember, Lidocaine is toxic, and it can't be used too many times. It's a strong anesthetic used to numb the inner mouth, when a person gets a dentist's treatment. Lidocaine is injected into your teeth gums or something like that.

I think it would be great if they could do a re-make of Lidocaine, just like Dr. Tzaunopaulos is re-making one of the drugs for epilepsy. Such a Lidocaine-remake could be injected into your mouth, and still work on Tinnitus, and not necessarily be injected into your ears. So, you could easily inject this, every 24 hours, and be sure that your Tinnitus doesn't come back.

Some people on this forum have had Lidocaine injections. I found this article:
https://www.newswise.com/articles/lidocaine-relieves-tinnitus-sufferers
It's a clinical study, which seems to show that Lidocaine provides an complete or partial Tinnitus relief for the vast majority of the study participants.


My guess is, that Lidocaine, which is anesthetic, it somehow silences the electrical impulses coming from the wrongly wired or damaged auditory nerves, therefore your Tinnitus decreases. Because, is it a coincidence, that half of your face basically goes numb and you can't feel pain in there, but at the same time, your Tinnitus decreases? I don't think so. Tinnitus is physical and it's related with brain inflammation.

 

In addition to being a local anesthetic, Lidocaine decreases glutamate release and antagonizes the NMDA receptor. I don't think it works by reducing brain inflammation. I think it works in a similar way to what OTO-313 is trying to do (more safely than lidocaine).

 

Exactly. This is the type of research that is needed, not more psychology crap about personality traits.

 

So I wonder if cocaine will silence tinnitus, since it has numbing effects like lidocaine?

Asking for a friend.

 

I did a brief search and it looks like Coke, unlike lidocaine, can stimulate the Glutamate receptors, theoretically could make tinnitus worse.

 

I emailed one of the contacts about the nature of the study and being potentially interested in volunteering, they replied within 5 minutes and said "This study is not a treatment study as we are looking for neural changes in the brain related to tinnitus, but your participation may help us understand tinnitus further and allow us to look into future treatment that will help our tinnitus patients. Please let me know if you have any other questions!"

 

It definitely doesn’t. At least that’s what my friend told me. It does the opposite. Said my friend.

 

Bumping up. Wouldn't recommend cocaine. Got mild-to-moderate (sometimes it gets me so annoyed that I think it's severe, although it's not) tinnitus in Nov 2019 from that thing.

I overdosed, thank god I am alive. Won't ever touch that thing again (promised to myself). If I ever knew...

 

I don't think there are many people (If any) who have injected cocaine into their ears. I'm not saying it's a good idea, but maybe in the future, the scientists will find out if injecting numbing stuff into your ears, would silence tinnitus.

I guess, we have to wait for the results of this study.

Btw, I feel the same like you peter91. My tinnitus is mild-moderate, but sometimes it sounds really loud and I've got some mental health issues, so sometimes I'm just suicidal.

 

The thing is, with NMDA receptor antagonists, I feel that they’d only be effective in the acute window (during initial genesis of the tinnitus). That’s probably why @ChrisBoyMonkey didn’t experience any relief, and why memantine is ineffective in chronic cases. I literally have no clue why lidocaine would be so effective, unless it’s extremely strong and the damaged cochlea continues to release glutamate, and chronic tinnitus is a consequence of continuous glutamate release. It may be that lidocaine can “clear” the system of glutamate by overcoming the threshold of glutamate release via exceptionally strong NMDA antagonist activity, but its short-acting nature allows the tinnitus to reform shortly after administration.

 

I have read your story, you are worrying about it too much man. I mean, yes you can't do anything about it right now but, huh, you are young and science is gonna make it some day a lot better. Just patience, and relax, man.

Seems like you need to read about Back to Silence technique: Don't measure your tinnitus volume. Rather measure how you feel about it. That's counter-intuitive but helps a LOT.

Deep Brain stimulation and other breakthrough things are going to help if, in worst case, it won't go away.

My tinnitus is loud when I am in complete silence listening it, and some frequencies come and go.
First month was horrible and I was almost crying but one day I said:
"I am going to go with it, there is nothing I can do anyway! God gives you bearable struggles."

Try Pharma GABA maybe, L-Theanine and Ashwagandha combined for a month. This might help your nerves calm down. Also Magnesium could help.

P.S. Wouldn't say I have no mental issues having overdoses and almost passed away two months ago.

Cheers

 

Also- cocaine is processed with some extremely nasty chemicals- such as diesel fuel, Ect...

You definitely want to stay away from all street drugs- they use anything and everything to “Cut” that crap- and most of it is toxic.

Most potent pharmaceuticals are not any better in my experience- but for whatever reason I am highly susceptible to Ototoxicity.

I know others don’t seem to have this issue.
I guess there’s a guy who runs a tinnitus forum on Facebook who promotes using a cocktail of Zanax and Gabapentin.

Both of those drugs are in The top 10 for causing tinnitus and for good reason - but others find them to be a lifesaver for coping with intrusive tinnitus.

One thing is for sure- Tinnitus continues to baffle anyone who tries to figure it out.

 

Still not recruiting.

Still no cocaine.

In all seriousness, if I got temporary suppression of my tinnitus, the last thing I’d want to do is hop in an MRI and endanger myself. Hope they get some valuable information out of the brave subjects though.