The 'Love Hormone' (Oxytocin) May Quiet Tinnitus

So they have applied for the patent. What does that mean going forward?

 

I wouldn't put too much stock in the patent.

They obviously liked what they saw in the potential for Oxytocin and sought a way to enhance the delivery. It makes sense that they'd want to patent that while running the clinical trials to prove its efficacy and hopefully bring it to market.

My ASSUMPTION (based on various information that I've gleaned), is that there is a wealthy donor helping to fund this proof of concept who also holds the patent (which probably costs hundreds of thousands, if not maybe in the millions). It makes sense he would want to reap some sort of benefit from the idea, even if his ultimate goal is to come up with a viable treatment. That's human nature and I'd do the same.

This is a big year. We should get results from Cognosetta (update hopefully), Shore, Oxytocin, OTO-313, Dirk De Ridder, and Hamid Djalilian. Also, an objective measure of tinnitus is likely just around the corner which should lead to an explosion in additional research.

 

I'm taking 45 IU four times a day.

 

I’m confused. Aren’t you a part of the clinical trial? How do you know if you are taking the real thing or placebo?

 

Wasn’t there already a recent story on a breakthrough on measuring tinnitus objectively (may have been from Australia)?

 

I believe that you're referring to this article which → Tinnitus Talk did a podcast on.

→ Technology lets clinicians objectively detect tinnitus for first time

At the time of the podcast, the reliability was not sufficiently high enough. The same could be said of Dirk De Ridder's model of an objective measure. The number's I am familiar had his reliability a little bit higher than the Bionics institute's. So my understanding is that no sufficiently reliable objective measure is in place (I think 95% is the goal) but given how close these two are, we should have one of them reach the target in the near future.

 

Not anymore. I finished up the trial, then went back later for ongoing treatment.

 

Do you have to keep the spray cold all day? Do you take it at work?

 

Which clinical trial were you a part of?

 

Yes, it needs to be kept refrigerated. I use a small cooler pack when travelling, etc.

 

At NYU Langone - full details are on ClinicalTrials.gov (and I think discussed earlier in this thread also). Last time I checked they were still recruiting.

 

Yeah, NYU Langone are the ones who filed for the patent on 2/8/2022. I wonder, since this is already a medication that has been approved, if you can asked to get treated with it.

 

Got it, yeah I was confirming it was that trial. How do you know you weren’t being treated with placebo?

 

Why would this result in an “explosion of research”?

I read an article from approximately 1998 indicating that they had found the area of the auditory system and/or brain where tinnitus originates and that this would result in effective treatment. We are still waiting all of these years later.

 

For the first half of the trial period, everyone gets Oxytocin, then for the second half there's a 50/50 chance you'll either get the placebo or continue on the Oxytocin.

 

Was that considered an “objective measure” that could indicate the presence and levels of intensity of tinnitus? I highly doubt, given the imaging technology available at the time, it would have been classified as a reliable objective measure.

 

Got it. Hate to hear that they’re still recruiting. I was really hoping that they would wrap things up this June and we’d get some results by end of 2022.

If 2022 isn’t a good year, I don’t see a big pipeline of things to look forward to in 2023/2024 yet.

 

I disagree. It doesn’t need to go through FDA approval.

@ploughna was allowed to continue the real deal.

 

What do you disagree with?

 

I’m sorry, I thought you meant that this drug won’t be available.

 

I was not comparing an objective measurement of tinnitus with the 1998 article. I was just referencing that they thought that they had made such a major breakthrough in 1998 but it did not result in any effective treatment. Why would an objective measurement of tinnitus more quickly lead to effective treatment? I am not being argumentative. I am just curious.

 

Because they could objectively measure improvement from drug trials with a medical test vs. subjective self-report THI scale ratings.

 

@Athens, pretty much this above. And depending on what the measure is, it can help better to understand the biological mechanisms of tinnitus. Current objective measure prospects are looking for relationships in brain activity. This knowledge, once the full tinnitus pathway is uncovered, can lead to effective treatments because they will know where to target. This is my understanding anyways.

 

O.K. Thank you.

 

High Dose Oxytocin Nasal Spray for Treatment of Tinnitus

Primary completion date 6th of May.

 

@ploughna, are you still using this?

 

Yes, still taking it per the dosage/etc I mentioned further back in the thread.

 

How’s it going? Any benefit?

 

It's no silver bullet but I have had far less truly horrendous days since I started with it, which is why I'm continuing with it. Over the course of a week, I used to be a ratio of (roughly):

30% barely able to function
60% bad but can make it through the day
10% manageable

Now, it's more like: 10%, 50%, 40% respectively.

My big issue is the variability and not knowing what the next day will bring. On top of that is sound reactivity - my own voice, when I drive (with earplugs!), talk for too long, etc will exacerbate the tinnitus. Impossible to habituate to, so if anyone has any ideas how to calm the reactivity, I'd love to know. The treatment has not made any difference to these aspects.

 

Sounds like a great result. Maybe you have shared before but how long have you had tinnitus?