Tinnitus Clinic?

The ENT I've seen who I thought was cool refused to give me more amitriptyline, saying it wasn't supported by "the literature" for tinnitus treatment.

His idea instead? Go to the tinnitus clinic after I refused to follow his referral. I don't need to spend more time and money to be told what I already know, which is that they can't do anything about it.

So called tinnitus experts should be banned from practicing medicine. I am
asking as to what happens at a tinnitus clinic so as to support my argument that it is a worthless endevour.

 

1. They try to sell hearing aids

2. They try to sell TRT

That's it.

Experience: Montreal tinnitus clinic and Mississauga metro tinnitus clinic


Big waste of money.

 

I was seriously pissed off when my ENT suggested CBT as a tinnitus sleep aid. As opposed to a medication that actually helps.

 

I like CBT, but for them to suggest it as "sleep aid" is ridiculous.

 

Although i think your ent had the best intentions. It is indeed harsh to just refuse medicine when someone needs it. Sleep is way to important to risk it.

Cbt does help for sleep. I am a behavioural therapist myself and use relaxation techniques to sleep. Then again i needed 2 months of sleep medication untill i was accustomed to this way of sleeping. Although I'm not a fan of those meds, just quiting the medication withouth thinking of your needs is a bad move in my oppinion. Maybe your gp can be of more help?

 

With all due respect for your practice, I'm skeptical of CBT as a long term solution for anxiety. That's what it is after all, an anxiety treatment and not a tinnitus one.

 

Best thing that happened in your life. Go thank your ENT. Amitriptilyline is a crutch and a bad one at that.

 

It can be a harsh drug but it's the only drug that can actually reduce the tinnitus. Not even benzos can do that. Though benzos are a godsend for severe anxiety

 

You can do CBT all day long ,,in fact double it CCBBTT but if youve got a loud jet engine in your head and some medical professional thinks behavioural therapy will work then im going to offer him some swamp land in Nigeria which is deffo being turned into a luxury holiday resort so dont miss out..............bizzarly anyone with T should really hope they have high freq hearing loss because Hearing aids will then cut out the noise by at least ball park figure of 50-70%......30 years of this crap and that is the only thing that can work providing as I say you have HF Hearing Loss

 

I wish this was generalizable. I have HF hearing loss and a hearing aid. It doesn't cut my T in any significant way. I do want to try HAs that are able to amplify high frequencies (mine seems to be limited to < 8 kHz) to see if it will make any difference in my case. 50-70% cut would be awesome.

 

I went to a tinnitus clinic and the woman working there told me I had anxiety and I needed to "get my anxiety under control." And she gave me headphones (they were $200) and told me to listen to ambient noise throughout the day.

 

Yeah I've come to see that so-called tinnitus experts are just snake oil salesman.

 

Pretty much my experience. I thought cervical spondylosis could be contributing to my noise. But maybe only HF hearing loss? I didn't like hearing aids too well so I'm trying TMJ appliance, Lyrica, some benzos, etc. Not a lot of choices.

 

They should know tinnitus causes anxiety and not necessarily vise versa.

 

I have some Amitriptyline 50mg on hand but the dry mouth is so bad for that. Then you are left with SSRI's, SNRI's, which also have terrible side effects IMO. Mood stabilizers like Lamictal 25mg (which I'm currently taking) seem to have minimal side effects, but don't think they do much for your noise. Maybe larger doses would help some but could be too sedating.

Then you are left with Lyrica, Gabapentin, and benzos. Benzos are great for anxiety. Gabapentin plus Klonopin is what Dr. Shulman recommended years ago. Seemed to work quite well in the past but it seems your brain grows tolerant in time and it loses its effectiveness.

http://www.tinnitusjournal.com/articles/gabapentin-and-tinnitus-relief.pdf

 

Tinnitus clinics are usually psychosomatic clinics. If you think you need mental help, they may be a good address.
If you want to get to the bottom of the causes of your problem, they are usually no help. You only know the concept of high frequency loss -> hearing aid supply.
Somatic tinnitus does not exist.
Pulsatile tinnitus is imagination if an angio-MRI did not have a pathalogical finding.
As long as you are psychologically stable, outpatient examinations make more sense and are cheaper.

 

I'll have to disagree with about 99% of what you wrote.
It's true that lots of ENTs will prescribe Amitriptyline and Nortriptyline for severe tinnitus and for a very-tiny-small amount of the population these drugs may reduce tinnitus by a small to medium degree (not permanently).

But benzos will decrease volume and perception by a much larger degree in a much larger amount of the population, since they hit the CNS much harder and way faster than the tricyclics mentioned above. Of course with the added danger of addiction and faster buildup of tolerance.

In other words, as I said many times in this forum, choose your poison. I would always go for a very long half life benzo such as valium or phenazepam - I can take a couple of pills on a bad day and have them in my system for a long time 'till the time they're out of my body.

And I'm always laughing with doctor's writting Valium or even Clonazepam prescriptions for 3 times a day dosage schedule. It's like they're actively trying to have their patients OD or become junkies, they don't even bother to read the damn leaflet inside the dope's box... Anyway.

 

Why is TRT a waste of money? Sure, it’s not a cure but isn’t it a decent treatment at least?

If it is able to treat H and reactive tinnitus then I would be satisfied. I am thinking I might like to give it a try if I can find somewhere that does it.

 

>why is TRT a waste of money?
Nice b8.

 

Huh? I am asking out of ignorance dude. I haven’t tried it because they don’t offer it where I currently live despite asking the audiologist to get me some WNGs - they said no. Only thing on offer were neuromonics (way ex) or listen to white noise on an MP3 player.

 

Ah I see. Sorry about my reaction then. You see recently because of how bad and grossly overrepresented in tinnitus research it is, its kind of become a meme.

The problem with it is it's grossly overpriced and there's much better ways to get the results it offers. And all it offers is habituation, which the tinnitus medical community is trying to move away from, and move to treatment. So to sum up:

1) it's old
2) it's a joke
3) it's extremely expensive
4) it's soon going to be obsolete.

So that's why a lot of people don't like TRT. Your audiologist in my opinion, is right. I would recommend the white noise on the MP3.

 

And do you really think TRT is going to do that?

If you want that result, for cheap then absolutely take the audiologists advice. If price is no option, then neuromonics is the better option (about as expensive as TRT). I'm just throwing my hat in the ring to give advice. Good luck on your journey.

 

Please don't take advice from people that NEVER tried it and just speculate. I used TRT for for my hyperacusis over 25+ years ago and I fixed my issue. @Michael Leigh also used it and it helped him a lot. Unless someone tries it, then they need to not bash it. It's pure ignorance to speak so highly against it, when people never even tried it. Use it and if you don't get results, then maybe give an input.

It really depends on the audiologist and how well they understand tinnitus. I was lucky to find one 25+ years ago and I was able to resolve my hyperacusis and my life is A LOT better due to it....

For me , it was worth every penny and If i had hyperacusis today, i'd re-do-it in a heartbeat!

 

Wow for someone who didn't reply to my comments you sure posted a lot addressing my comments.

 

Don’t know. But I do know I would detest any BS music with neuromonics. Sounds like such a scam. I’ll listen to white noise any day thanks. I just don’t want to make things worse and an MP3 player might not have the dynamic range of wngs, which are designed deliver WN to the ear in a safe way. Maybe I’ve been reading too many posts from certain rude people on this site.

 

Yeah I'm no neuromonics fan either, and I STILL think it's the better option. Until we have a decent treatment I'm very skeptical of other treatments out there, until there's serious scientific research to back it up. You're smart to recognize that.

Maybe a WNG would be safer then white noise on an MP3, but the MP3 is the cheaper option. Just choose what you think would be the best option.

 

Tinnitus is the worst thing that happens to anyone. I'd rather have cancer.

TRT is a money grubbing scam, the prices charged are outrageous and nothing happens to your tinnitus. It's about habituation. It's just therapy to help you think happy thoughts and no offence but every explanation here tries to convince it's anything but that... not true IMO.

Hey, listen, if you want to try it, and you can see it has helped a few people here, go for it. If you have two years of your life to spare and endless amounts of cash (serious, the price is insulting)... give it a try and report back two years later.

 

Sorry to say but if you got cancer you would almost definitely end up with hearing loss and tinnitus anyway. Chemo drugs like Cisplatin are very ototoxic. Don’t wish for things like that.

 

Nah. I would rather have cancer. I hundred percent mena it.

I am
Not living I am existing.

At least with cancer I know I would die in due time. And then I'd get actual silence. And stop being a burden. Or looking like a nutcase. At least I'd get sympathy. Not oh it's not that bad or I must be faking it since tinnitus is invisible.

For now I just endure this permanent Chinese water Torture in my head.

 

Go read the thread about possible future treatments.