Tinnitus Began with ECT

My tinnitus started after waking from an Electroconvulsive Shock treatment. It is about 11 KHz and has been with me for years now. I am interested in speaking with others who have had ECT induced tinnitus and any possible treatment.

 

I created an account to ask if anyone here has had success in treating tinnitus with ECT.
Here is a study that suggests that some have had positive outcomes from it:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7552051

 

Well, the paper is a single case study from 1995 that has been cited 5 times since then, and it appeared in a journal published by the Association for Convulsive Therapy. As a counterpoint, here is another case study that attributes chronic tinnitus to ECT: http://www.hindawi.com/journals/crips/2011/607061/ Neither of them qualify as anything resembling scientific proof one way or the other. I guess I am a little surprised that someone somewhere hasn't done a tiny trial with ECT.

I will be interested to see if anyone weighs in with personal experience, but it does not look promising.

 

Thanks, I reviewed the abstract. It doesn't state whether the improvement was in the depression or the tinnitus, though.

 

Good catch! The abstract really isn't that helpful.

 

No, it's not and it's definitely not clear if ECT is even that helpful for depression. I figured someone on here might have some experience with it though.

 

I had seven ECT treatments, I developed tinnitus and my memory and concentration have been greatly impacted. It's been 4 months now, silence is deafening. My physicians seem to think that having tinnitus is nothing but an annoyance that can be dealt with using noise machines. Sometimes it's so much worse than others, I'm not sure what makes it worse. It's really difficult to concentrate with this constant noise in my head. How do you cope?

 

I had reoccurring low tinnitus in my left ear, caused by taking medication, for several years which was not bothering me at all most of the times. Sometimes I would go a weeks without any noise. My life was good.
Over one year now, when I admitted myself to hospital for Benzo detox after experiencing severe withdrawal symptoms of anxiety, psychosis and depression while I was in hospital, I was forced to have a ECT without my recollection or my permission.
When I waked up, my whole head and both ears were hissing loudly and never stopped hissing since.
On my better days I would have bothersome tinnitus - hissing in my both ears, manageable with masking generators. On my bad days, once or twice a week, my whole head and both ears are hissing so badly, nothing is helping to mask the noise. It is very debilitating and my life is ruined since.
Most of the doctors I have seen so far keep still telling me ECT is harmless and all my symptoms I am complaining about are not related to it. I don't think most of the doctors are educated enough to know what ECT can do to some people. So far I am not recovering from the ECT's harmful effects, especially the hissing is getting worse.
My other problems since are constant headaches, numbness and memory lost I have never had problem with before. ECT is not a cure. It is torture with lasting brain damage.

 

Mate I had the same thing done to me love to speak to you I'm suffering bad with noise in head ringing all day with headache all day

 

What country you from mate I'm in Australia

 

Had your ringing got better

 

I’ve had 4 sessions of ECT and it made my tinnitus much much worse as do all antidepressants and TMS therapy. I think anything that raises serotonin aggravates nerves in the cochlea or brain and causes tinnitus to spike.

Sadly for me the increase in loudness stayed; it did not reduce after stopping treatment.

I’m from Australia too.