The Efficacy of Combined Treatment with Sulodexide and Melatonin in Patients with Tinnitus

Abstract
Tinnitus is the perception of sound in the absence of an apparent acoustic stimulus. A widespread and highly debilitating disease difficult to cure. Several treatments have been advocated for tinnitus in the last years, including surgery, pharmacotherapy, counselling, cognitive behavioural therapy, sound therapy, but unfortunately without definitive conclusions. The surgery treatments could represent an important therapeutic choice on specific subgroups of tinnitus with defined causes but obviously this approach represent an invasive treatment and it should be considered with extreme caution and then, alternative pharmacological options should be investigated. In this retrospective study 30 patients with tinnitus were treated with sulodexide (250 mg bid, in the morning and in the evening) and melatonin (3 mg in the evening before going to sleep) for 80 days. The evaluations were performed comparing different parameters at basal (T0) and after 40 days (T1) and 80 days (T2) of treatment. The results of Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI) and acufenometry showed a significative improvement of tinnitus after treatment with sulodexide and melatonin. In particular, THI total score was reduced from 37±20 to 27±18 (p<0.001) and 21±19 (p<0.001) at T1 and T2, respectively. The percentage of patients with improved symptoms (i.e. reduced score at THI) was 76.7% at T1 and 90.0% at T2. Finally a significant improvement was also detected in the tone audiometry test. No side effects were observed during the treatment period. In conclusion, the combined use of sulodexide, a natural glycosaminoglycan with antithrombotic, pro--fibrinolytic and vascular anti--inflammatory properties used in the treatment of many vascular diseases, included the vertigo of vascular origin and melatonin, a neurohormone produced by the pineal gland and related to multiple physiological functions, confirms to an important and promising therapeutically option in the tinnitus management.


Sounds like it was helpful? I took Melatonin for a while but at the time my T was not bothersome as it is now.

 

@newfie Hi b'ye I'm also a nflder. living in Golden bc from bonavista and suffering from T. Find this interesting and will try the sulodexide and melatonin.

 

Hi newfie,
is the sulodexide something you can get OTC, or by prescription. I've never heard of it.

 

Prescription.

@thesaint good stuff buddy...I'm sure there's plenty of others who got T hunting in NL!

 

This is interesting, 90% had improvements after 80 days. Is a THI from 37 to 21 a lot? I don't know how that scale works.
I wish there was more info from the study. How long did the patients have t, how did they get their t, was the improvement sustained.

 

From what I understand--TRT is deemed a success if there is a 40% reduction in the score of your THI (or a similar questionnaire.) So a decrease from 37 to 21 is about 40% and could be deemed a success. What makes me wonder about this study though is that there was no double-blind component--so measuring success by THI could just be the placebo effect in order--i.e. if you "think" you are doing something proactive to address your Tinnitus, it doesn't bother you as much. Something that TRT is just as capable of accomplishing. Would be nice if this really worked though!

 

Here is another study

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2808686/#!po=2.77778

 

Has anyone read or heard anything additional regarding this treatment approach?