Prednisone Greatly Reduces My Tinnitus — What Happens When I Taper Off?

I took my last pill of Prednisone today and I'm anxious my tinnitus is going to come back.

Last week my doctor prescribed me Prednisone and Amoxicillin because of a cold/flu I have had for 4 months now and which has not gone away. Last week I suddenly lost 50% of my hearing so I was very scared and went to the doctor and he prescribed me these meds.

After the first day I took Prednisone, my tinnitus reduced to a 3/10. The second day my tinnitus reduced to a 2/10 and now it is a 1/10. But I'm out of Prednisone. Tomorrow I have to go back for a checkup, but I'm 10000% sure that Prednisone did something to my ears. The full fealing I had is gone and the pain I sometimes had when in a silent room with my tinnitus screaming is also gone.

When I used to sleep on my ear, I always could hear my tinnitus very loud, but now it is very soft or I do not even hear it at all.

I'm scared the tinnitus will return now that I no longer take Prednisone.

 

After the onset I had a course of Prednisone that reduced my tinnitus by around 30%. Since then it's constant or lowers when I take vitamin B complex or Magnesium.

 

@Kaelon also experiences full resolution of his tinnitus when he takes Prednisone. If I remember correctly, it also comes back after discontinuing the treatment.

 

Today I did not take Prednisone and my tinnitus is almost back to like it was before.

So it was too good to be true.

 

@Nucleo is correct: Prednisone completely resolves my tinnitus, usually within 36 hours of starting a standard 50 mg taper regimen. However, by the end of the regimen (usually days 4-6), the tinnitus returns. It's proof positive, however, that neuromuscular inflammation is the cause of my particular tinnitus and cervical inflammation of the spine combined with TMJ-related disorders are the likely physical aggravating factors in my case. If Prednisone provides you with significant relief, you may have neuromuscular inflammation and it's good news: it means your tinnitus is treatable. Tinnitus is chronic, though, when it traces its etiology to neuromuscular inflammation and so there's no quick fix -- treatments are usually long-term physical therapies designed to address the underlying physical disorders causing the inflammation. Even so, it's a good sign that you can find relief.

Another tell-tale sign that usually goes hand-in-hand with Prednisone helping out: a waxing-and-waning effect. So called "extremely good, almost silent" days and "terrible, louder-than-ever" days that don't seen to have any rhyme or reason associated with them. Once you discover the underlying disorder, behaviors once thought unrelated to your tinnitus start becoming much more apparent.

Wishing you silence soon!

 

Prednisone made my tinnitus permanently quieter.

 

This is very helpful. Thank you greatly.

I just started a 12-day Prednisone taper with a 40 mg initial dose that I specifically asked my GP for. I never take meds, not even Aspirin and I was very reluctant to go this route but since the potential serious side effects are almost always short lived it is worth the risk.

About an hour after I took the initial dose, the tinnitus seemed slightly more bothersome, but 6 hours after taking the initial dose I noticed my tinnitus is down slightly to modestly - maybe 50%. I sweat a bit more but other than that no side effects that I can detect. am going to research this much more.

Kaelon, do you have research links re; the neuromuscular nature of tinnitus that abates with anti-inflammatory meds? I want to rule out any other type of therapeutic affect Prednisone may have that may account for the reduced tinnitus. This is great news and I thank you for this information.

 

Hi @Leodavinci,

First, glad to hear that Prednisone may be helping you! I should warn you, in case I haven't already - it's going to be short-lived. You can expect significant (if not total) relief for the first couple of days, but as you start to taper down, the tinnitus will come roaring back. It's not a cure - it's just a way to cope and it proves that there's neuromuscular inflammation on some level going on.

There is very little understanding about tinnitus in general, so you can imagine that there's even less understanding about tinnitus when caused by neuromuscular inflammation (which occurs in just under a third of all cases, so while fairly prevalent amongst tinnitus sufferers, it is far less common than tinnitus which occurs from hearing damage, which occurs in over 60% of cases). The best resources that I have found are studies published exploring so-called Somatic Pulsatile Tinnitus Syndrome, for which Dr. Robert Levine is the pioneer of study in this field. There are several major pubmed publications that talk about the function and diagnosis of this, and the underlying cause (which is inhibition or dysfunction of the dorsal cochlear nucleus, or DCN, the piece of the brainstem that sits at the base of the skull and at the top of the spinal column that is responsible for filtering the inputs from your cochlea) It is believed that muscle spasms -- in the head, neck, upper shoulders, upper back, and/or jaw (they're all interconnected) -- are interfering with the proper functioning of the DCN or may have injured it in some way.

The primary reading on this is (while very clinical) Somatosensory Pulsatile Tinnitus Syndrome (Robert A. Levine, M.D., et. al.). Note also the number of articles that reference, cite, and relate to Levine's groundbreaking study.

The assertion raised in these studies go like this: The DCN, like the rest of the nervous system, is very plastic so it will reshape and attempt to recover in a variety of ways, but right now, there's no treatment for neuromuscular inflammatory tinnitus. There are, however, so-called "somatosensory treatment modalities" that try to stimulate the muscles and/or nerves to retrain the DCN over time, and they show gradual improvement in most cases by within three years. In my opinion, physical therapy is the most promising form of support once people have diagnosed what exactly is their focal trigger point -- but the diagnosis process is very frustrating, because more than half of all tinnitus cases won't be positively diagnosed.

Here's wishing quieter days for you!

 

Did your tinnitus end up coming back?

 

Hmmm, this is interesting.

When I went on a dose of Prednisone last year due to a boat horn, it also lowered my tinnitus by 50%.

It was a weird thing to feel. It went back up after I discontinued the treatment. However, I don't think it was as loud as when I started the treatment.

I haven't looked myself. But I would be curious to see if there have been many studies looking at inflammation as being a cause or reason for exasperation of tinnitus.

 

What was your Prednisone dose, how long did you take it for, and how quickly after the incident did you start it?

 

6 days after the incident. 50 mg for a week with no cycling off.

I was warned though greatly from my ENT to not go past that. Prednisone has a reputation as being addictive and has some nasty side effects.

 

I only took Prednisone for a day, then switched to Dexamethasone which lowered my tinnitus by 50% while I was on it. After I stopped the Prednisone, the tinnitus came back and has varied and or gotten worse over these 3+ years.

 

My tinnitus is noise induced but Prednisone takes it to such a low level I would have no problem living the rest of my life with. There is not a damn ENT in the world who can explain this. I refuse to believe that this is not a scenario that comes up often from patients. Absolutely no reason an answer cannot be found.

 

I went on a drive tonight with a friend and his acquaintance. Weather was nice and they had their windows down but I kept my windows up in my car and sunroof closed. I told them I was scared because of my tinnitus and ear issues.

My friend’s passenger told me that he has similar issues a long while back but got better after taking Prednisone and some steroid injections. He had tinnitus and fullness for about a year and finally saw a specialist who prescribed him Prednisone. He said he did a strong dose for 10 days, then stopped, and the tinnitus was less. He repeated this one every 4-5 weeks, then after a few times the doctor gave him a low dose of steroids (he thinks Prednisone but doesn’t remember). He stayed on them for 2 months or so and then his tinnitus and ear fullness were pretty much gone. He still has it but has to be in perfect silence to hear it. I was thinking about the post by @Lane where he talked about cortisone I think for long periods of time.

Has anyone heard anything like this?

 

It kinda goes with the theory why tinnitus is so low in the morning for some people.

Do you know what he had injected/where?

 

This is extremely interesting.

 

Do you also know what might have caused your friend's passanger's tinnitus?

 

It happened many years ago and he said he didn’t remember what was injected. He didn’t mention his ear so I assume it was body and not IT.

He believes it was acoustic trauma.

 

Prednisone eliminates my tinnitus until I get to the end of the taper. So where do I start trying to find a solution? My tinnitus is noise induced but I cannot believe there is no other med that can be taken long term to reduce inflammation that causes tinnitus. I have no idea where to start. I do not have TMJ. I am on allergy drops, and I had sinus surgery. Nothing makes it go away except Prednisone. What is the deal?

 

This is very interesting.

50% of the mornings I wake i think my tinnitus has gone then it slowly starts to pick up again.

I suffer from TMJ and have had Botox in the masseter before which did help with my grinding but not my tinnitus.

I talked my doctor into giving me some Prednisone to try. He gave me a small dose off just 10 mg for 5 days to try.

I woke this morning and while I was lying in bed debating to get up and could hear my tinnitus suddenly lower to about 10%

I have had tinnitus since July and this is the qst time I have experienced this but I always knew I didn't get tinnitus from a loud noise and have tried several fixes such as Chiropractor, Botox etc. My ears constantly feel as if they were blocked and my tubes always crackle and pop...

This is the 1st post I have seen where someone mentions about tinnitus being quieter in the mornings... You think I have inflammation then?

 

I see one of the the things Prednisone works on is inflammation... but I'm not an expert on the drug. I know that Turmeric is supposed to work on inflammation. Maybe you could call a pharmacist or doctor and ask them if Turmeric might help your tinnitus.

 

Already taking it, along with Serrapeptase. I don’t think it helps. My psych doctor is going to start me on Naltrexone in hopes it may reduce systematic inflammation.

There are some studies it may help. If not, it is about the last thing to try outside of going on a full go anti inflammatory diet which I do not think I have the discipline to do.

 

Did the Naltrexone help?

I also wanted to tell you I found something called "CuraMed" which is supposed to be "up to 500 times stronger than Turmeric" and supposed to be for inflammation according to the bottle. I thought I would let you know in case you wanted to look into it.

 

I actually started taking it as a low dose, taking a 50 mg tablet and dissolving it in 50 mg of water and then use a syringe to draw up 1.5 to 4.5 mg amounts.

It seemed to take some of the head pressure away but did not help with the tinnitus.

As of yesterday I have switched to taking a full 50 mg tablet a day. I will give it a month and if no difference, I will abandon this test.

At the full 50 mg you can't drink because it blocks the enjoyment feeling in your receptors, so I am not going to stop drinking if it offers no relief.

 

Hello good sir. Have you found any relief from taking the 50 mg daily doses?

I recently got tinnitus in my right ear (I believe from COVID-19) which was also causing my ears to crackle and pop as well as making it difficult to equalize pressure in my inner ears. I went to the ER and they gave me some steroid nasal spray (Fluticasone Propionate) I've been taking 100 mcg in each nostril twice a day and it helped with the pressure/popping, and crackling.

However, my tinnitus started only a few days ago and I got over COVID-19 at the end of July. I used to listen to loud music a lot and heard some loud noises around the time I got COVID-19. So it could be just the mixture of all that stress was too much for the hair cells in the ear and they ultimately died, or it's just from COVID-19.

Obviously I have some talking with my ENT to do. I just came across Tinnitus Talk while looking up info on tinnitus and wanted to be a part of it so hopefully we can help each other out. It also brings me a form of ease knowing that there's many others out there dealing with the same thing.

Best of luck to you all. Hope we all can enjoy silence again.

 

How is everyone in this thread doing now?