Tinnitus — Possible Treatments — Modern Medicine

Information presented in this post serves only for a basic orientation in the problem of tinnitus and they may or may not be either complete or relevant. It is only a mere overview of my own findings which I gathered together in the past. Your medical treatment must be under supervision of your medical doctor. I also do not guarantee that they will lead to a complete cure of your tinnitus. However, nobody can guarantee to you such a thing in the present day. Unfortunately, in this day and age there is no 100% effective way to cure tinnitus.

TINNITUS – POSSIBLE MEDICAL TREATMENTS &/OR ITS ALLEVIATION – MODERN MEDICINE

Vasodilatation medication and medication to support vascular system​

For noise induced tinnitus, inflammation of the middle ear, degeneration of auditory ear hair cells, insufficient neck or brain blood supply – it is imperative to start the medical treatment immediately.

• Enelbin – improves blood perfusion, oxygenation and tissue nourishment

• Ginkgo Biloba – improves blood perfusion, oxygenation and tissue nourishment

• Betahistine – relaxes muscles of the vessels in the inner ear, this way there is a better blood perfusion of these vessels

• Betaserc - relaxes muscles of the vessels in the inner ear, this way there is a better blood perfusion of these vessels

• Cinnarizine lessens a tonus of lean muscles in the vessel’s walls and this way it improves a supply of oxygen and glucose to the cells

• Stugeron – dampens down the effects of various hormones that cause vasoconstriction. Suppresses the onset of vessel spasms and betters the blood flow and supply of tissues including brain tissues.

• Cavinton – it is intended to use for the treatment or to dampen down symptoms connected with circulatory issues in the brain area. It is also used to affect both psychological and neurological symptoms associated with blood flow circulation problems in the brain area.

• Corticosteroids – anti-inflammatory effects.

• Microwick + corticosteroids – anti-inflammatory effects of corticosteroids are applied straight into the middle or inner ear with the help of silicone vent-tube Microvick.

https://www.earsinus.com/silverstein-microwick

Vasodilatation intravenous therapy​

It is used for tinnitus that is a result of a noise-induced trauma, middle-ear infection, degeneration of the hairs inside cochlea, insufficient neck or head blood supply. It is imperative that the treatment is started immediately. It has the same effect as the above-mentioned drugs, it is just delivered intravenously.

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT)​

For noise-induced tinnitus, middle ear infection, degeneration of the hairs inside cochlea, insufficient blood supply of the neck and/or brain and the like – yet again, it is necessary to start the treatment immediately. From to afore-mentioned possible treatments this one seems to be the most effective.

On the basis of various physical processes and characteristics of each sessions comes an increased oxygen supply to the organism. The supply of oxygen may be up to 15x more increased as opposed to breathing an air oxygen under normal circumstances. The effect is in full saturation of haemoglobin, red blood cells by oxygen and particularly in many-times increased dissolved oxygen in blood plasma. As many as 4 times more of the oxygen will extend into the tissues.

Medication for treatment of hairs inside cochlea
​

For tinnitus that was caused by damaging microscopic hairs that form a fringe on the surface of each auditory cell, where vasodilatation medication, intravenous therapy, or hyperbaric oxygen therapy did not help – meaning that our body cannot help repair itself, there are specifically aimed and still under development drugs to the inner ear.

• AM 101 – 3rd. phase of testing. Also known as Keyzilen

• OTO 311 – still under development and testing

• Inception 3 – pre-clinical development

• SPI 1005 – 2nd. Phase of testing

• HPN-1010 – unknown phase of testing

• SENS 401 – 1st. phase of testing

Medication based on controlling Ion channels, and in particular potassium channel activities, antiepileptic drugs, and receptor antagonists.​

For tinnitus that is localized in the middle and inner ear and is centralized in the individual parts of brain, these calm down the ‘unsolicited’ activity of neurons in the auditory cortex and its close parts.

• Retigabine (Trobalt, Potiga) the control of ion potassium channel activities, it was developed for epilepsy, but demonstrably works for tinnitus too, it has negative side effects

• SF0034 – controlling the Kv7.2/3 ion potassium channels, it is in a phase of testing

• AUT00063 – phase 2 testing, controlling the Kv3 ion potassium channels, primarily developed for tinnitus, in September 2015 the testing was stopped.

• Bivaracetam – phase 2 and 3 testing – it affects synaptic apertures 2A (SV2A), primarily developed for epilepsy

• Neramexan – an antagonist of NMDA receptors, during the phase 3 of testing were not achieved significant effects on tinnitus, nevertheless the tests continuous in Japan

• Gebapentine (Neurotine) – inhibition of glutamate synthesis, inhibition of release of excitatory neurotransmitters (noradrenaline and dopamine), increase in the concentration and synthesis GABA, some say it did have a positive effect on their tinnitus.

• Flupirtine – the control of the Kb7 ion potassium channels, it has a positive effect on tinnitus, however, it is important to upper intake the dosing, and with prolonged periods of time liver toxicity has been proven

• RL-81 the control of the Kv7 ion potassium channels, initiation of a pre-clinic study, it is supposed to be 15x more effective than Retigabine and 3x more effective than SF0034 and it should also has less side effects

Direct influence of a neural activity
​

For tinnitus that is centralized in the area of the middle and inner ear and affecting parts of brain, these methods help to calm down the unsolicited activity of neurons in the auditory cortex and its close parts.

• rTMS - repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation

• tDCS transcranial direct current stimulation (still in the phase of testing, non-invasive)

• DBS deep brian stimulation – only intended for testing, it is invasive

• HIFU - High Intensity Focused Ultrasound – in the phase of testing on humans (the research is carried out in Switzerland and the USA, for neurosurgery it is a combination of transcranial magnetic stimulation and a high intensity focused ultrasound

Antidepressants
​

For the type of tinnitus that originates from the imbalance of hormones (in particular serotonin, noradrenaline, dopamine, GABA) in body (in the brain). For a different type of tinnitus, these then act as an antianxiety and antidepressive mediators.

• SSRI

• SNRI

• SARI

• others

Neuromodulation methods and a musical type of a therapy
​

The treatment depeneds on the reason as to how you acquired your tinnitus.

• TRT – as of now the most reliable method, it is estimated up to 90 % success rate

• ACRNM – as of now used only for one frequency tone, available in the EU

• Neuromonics – available in the USA

• Tinnitracks

• Notched Music Therapy

• Others – XinoTinnitus, Serenade, Beyond Tinnitus, UltraQuiet therapy, therapy Mozart

Nerve Stimulation​

The treatment is dependent on the cause of your tinnitus.

• VNS therapy – The Serenity System – phase III of testing, the principle lies behind a stimulation of the vagus nerve and a musical therapy, it is invasive type of a treatment

• Mute Button – it is in the phase of testing, the principle lies behind a stimulation of the trigeminal nerve and a musical therapy, it is a non-invasive type of a therapy

Psychotherapy​

The treatment in this case isn’t dependent on the cause of tinnitus

• Cognitive behavioral therapy

• Biofeedback

• Gene therapy

• Optogenetics

• CGF166 phase 1 and 2 testing. Activation of a gene that causes the tiny hairs inside cochlea to grow again.

• SPI5557 – a preclinical study

Electronic equipment​

• Tinnitus maskers

• Players

• Hearing aids – for tinnitus associated with minor, moderate and severe hearing loss

• Cochlear implant – for tinnitus when one is completely deaf

Surgical solution​

• Stadeoplasty – a replacemant of the strirrup bone in certain types of otosclerosis

Disclaimer: I hereby declare that I do not own the rights to this article. All rights belong to the author. I am not a professional translator or interpreter so please excuse possible grammar mistakes or misinterpretations.

Author: michal from itinnitus.cz

Translation: Jiri

References:

1. Výzkum, studie a nové metody léčby tinnitu: Tinnitus - možnosti léčby - klasická medicína. Itinnitus.cz - Diskuzní forum [online]. 7th May 2015 [cit. 2018-01-07]. Retrieved from: http://www.itinnitus.cz/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=699

 

GREAT summary of practically everything in this section of the forum. Thanks!

 

No problem, I'm happy you found it helpful. Sorry for the minor grammatical errors I made. I usually have someone to proofread it after me but nobody was around this time. I hope it is coherent.

Cheers,

Jiri

 

Physiotherapy for somatic tinnitus is worth adding in my opinion. Trigger point massages + individualised exercises and stretches brought it way down for me and someone in my family was completely cured of tinnitus after months of physio.

 

That's a very nice presentation of information. I still argue that in most cases there is no real effective treatment of tinnitus and that most of us who have are going to die with it.

 

I agree that there aren't a lot of effective treatments for most of us. But there are positive changes in research that suggest a possibilty of cure for chronic tinnitus or at least make it milder.

When I was at university I've learned that there is nothing that can help tinnitus. But now I'm getting treated myself thanks to more recent insights.

Although I think that tinnitus will always be a difficult thing to address since it has many etiologies. I believe it can be efficiently treated in the future. If you look at the history of medicine there are a lot of illnesses that were considered untreatable and are now easy to fix.

The biggest hurdle I see at the moment is lack of funding to find a real cure. Why? Because pharmaceuticals love chronic illness.

 

Correct. There is a research and help underway + drugs that can alleviate the symptoms already. Viz the New University of Michigan Tinnitus Discovery: https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/new-university-of-michigan-tinnitus-discovery-—-signal-timing.2805/page-8#post-298726
Retigabine: https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/retigabine-trobalt-potiga-—-general-discussion.5074/
and last but not least, lets not forget that a body likes to repair itself. It takes a whole year for a brain to grow new healthy cells and neurons. Brain plasticity. Otherwise there'd hardly be any success stories viz threads:
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/a-collection-of-success-stories-from-around-the-web.24122/ and https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/spontaneous-recovery-stats-many-recover-3-studies.21441/

Like someone said (Bill Bauer) this forum is overrepresented with people who are hurting and are the less fortunate ones for whom it might take a lot longer to get better. This is also stated in the intro message you get when you sign up

I believe the ones who are on this forum and do get better hardly feel the need to come back and inform everybody of their recovery. Then there's the rest of the world with tinnitus who doesn't even know of this forum and does get better over time. This is also stated on the NHS tinnitus info site, quotting: "In many cases, tinnitus will get better gradually over time." https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/tinnitus/

 

To me, I think that's the most disconcerting thing about T. Just the fact that so many different things can cause it. It really makes you think about the odd dichotomy of our bodies being tough and self-regenerating for so many things, while being so fragile in other respects.

 

True, I believe that is the biggest difficulty with tinnitus. Not just the fact that different causes need different treatments, but the fact that the cause is most often invisible. And yeah the body is both strong and fragile at the same time. We still don't fully understand why some can recover well from serious accidents and others don'I from minor injuries.

I can concur since I had 2 hit and runs when I was younger and came out fine in the end. Then I got tinnitus from hitting my head against a cupboard. It's ironic, but hey that's life

 

I say tinnitus is just like chronic pain. It's just a nerve signal which means nothing and which you don't want to experience. Pain has a million causes; tinnitus has almost as many. It only has a few less because it deals with the ear only whereas pain can come from anywhere.

(and in truth I'm thankful I have reasonable-volume tinnitus instead of chronic pain.)

 

Tell me more about this please. What do you know about cranial sacral therapy??

 

The therapy mainly consist of trigger point massages and core excersises. But i actually went to physio because i had a serious injury and the reduction of tinnitus was a very nice bonus. So the excersises i get arent all tinnitus related. There are a few stretches that can reduce tinnitus though. I think you can easily find them on google.

I had cranio sacral 3 times. It worsened my injuries a lot and made the tinnitus much worse. The doctor warned me that craniosacral is dangerous because they use risky techniques. My physio also warned me about that. But of course with al therapies there are good and bad therapist so its more about finding the right person rather than the type of therapy.

Good luck

 

A "realist" told me that 2.5 years ago in this forum and it scared the crap out of me.

I now just treat it as part of me and go on with my life (after spending hundreds on supplements, etc) -- When I was doing all that stuff, it did appear that it was going away but that must have been the placebo effect.

For me, exercising, cutting out salt, and eating healthier has really helped. -- Also, mask on occasion and don't monitor it. -- Monitoring makes you focus on it too much and will build up anxiety which makes the T louder (at least for me).

Stay strong and remember that you are not alone!

 

AM101 is only for acute tinnitus and I read somewhere that effects are not so great... Correct me if I am wrong.. I only believe in progenitor cell activation and stem cell treatment....

 

Something a little off topic. If you are considering to support a good cause, then please, visit this thread: Let's Support Tinnitus Talk! and make a small donation. More info in the intro post. We're close to reaching 50 donators target.

Also, something worth mentioning, in my opinion, is: Operation Regrow (HRP) June 19 is the deadline and your donation will be matched by an anonymous donor. The research team and what they're doing looks very promising.

Thank you.

 

Hi,

I've recently been reading into various potential treatments for tinnitus, and was wondering if other, perhaps more knowledgeable people about this, could offer their input and opinions.

I'll just list everything I found so far:

• N-acetylcistene (NAC)- I've heard this is more used to help prevent further damage of the ears and hearing, I've also heard there can be some considerable side-effects

• Trivestal retard- I've read it strengthens circulation in one's head and ears

• Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment (HBO)- I honestly haven't read too much about this, I read something about it helping deep-sea divers who have some affliction

• Prednisole- I've read it has helped some people with tinnitus, but can't really be used in the long-term and may only be of temporary relief

• Steroids- I've heard certain steroids may help those with tinnitus who have hearing loss associated with it shortly after they get T. I was actually curious as to whether people think this can help those who have tinnitus but no associated hearing loss (such as myself)

Well I know there's a bunch of other supplements and things some people claim might help, but from all I've read on this so far the ones I mentioned above seem more likely to help with T. I'd really appreciate others input on this and what they think might be viable treatments.

 

This is more for new users but I found a paper from 2010-2011 recently that reviewed various drug related therapies designed to treat tinnitus, and shared my attitude of frustration at being told to "just live with it".

This paper gives a highlight of various medications in case you were looking for a more formal opinion on the matter beyond anecdotal experience.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1359644609003948

 

LMAO, the most shilled method is not the most reliable.

 

I would really like to try TRT just to see for myself its efficacy, but why is it f****** expensive???? Why????? Why is everything related to hearing expensive?

 

There is no medicine/cure for tinnitus. This is the most profound fact scattered around this forum and this entire site.

Very useful post by the original poster and kudos to him/her - but nothing works. Take it from someone who has tried almost 95% of what's written above. And find the posts from that poor Italian guy (can't even remember his name) who did HIFU. He had tried 100% of what's written above, even heroine. Where's he now? I can't / won't even think about his case, because he was a cool guy, always helpful (hopefully he STILL is).

We are not a market that makes financial sense. That fact alone will ensure that researchers will rave about "THE CURE" just to grab government and other funds and then come up empty (AM-101, that trobalt derivative etc).

Only benzos can cut it for some people and for a small period of time.

 

https://www.biocentury.com/biocentu...oss-became-investable-space?kwh="AF243"+"DDB"

 

Any thoughts on this ... ?

Until now the pharmaceutical treatment for presbycusis remain limited and clinically unproven. The limited treatments for age-related hearing loss are: water-soluble coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) formulation, the prescription drug Tanakan, and combination antioxidant therapy. In 2010 it was explored that coenzyme Q10 a water-soluble formulation improved the air laminar tonal audiometry and bone thresholds at 1000 Hz, 2000 Hz, 4000 Hz, and 8000 Hz Salami et al., 2010 . Coenzyme Q10 has antioxidant properties similar to a vitamin. It produces in the body, but with the age its levels fallYamasoba et al., 2013 .

Tanakan is a vasodilator and is an international brand name of prescribed drug extract of Ginkgo biloba. Its pharmaceutical effects were observed when treating aged women with tympanophonia. It was found that Tanakan improved hearing and speech in adult patients, decreases tympanitis intensity, and gives idea to recommend the presbycusis treatment Boboshko et al., 2010 . Antioxidant therapy is a combination of six antioxidant agents, i.e. ribose-cysteine, L-cysteine-glutathione mixed disulfide, NW-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester, folate, vitamin B12, and vitamin C, within the oxidative pathway it target four sites Boboshko et al., 2010 .

Ebselen is a synthetic drug molecule composed of organic selenium with antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and cytoprotective activity Schewe, 1995 . It mimics glutathione peroxidase (GPx), a crucial enzyme that protects the inner ear from damage caused by noise or loud soundsDudbridge, 2008 . It is found that ebselen can be used as a possible treatment for hearing loss and tinnitus Kil et al., 2007 .​

 

Still, no actual treatment for tinnitus, some clinical trials for hearing loss at various phases (even they wouldn't know if they get an FDA approval, market arrival time, hopefully less probably more than a decade and ... AUT00063. Autifony, the company that can't even run a proper clinical trial. Fills me with hope.

Still, I'm not a pessimist, I'm actually being realistic here. These seem like treatments for hearing loss, probably targeting the older ages of the population spectrum. A pill/treatment for profound, intrusive tinnitus for a young person is in nobody's medical pipeline.

 

Viking