TMS May Have Caused My Tinnitus to Get Much Worse

I've had hearing loss and tinnitus in my left year since 2008, but it was not so bothersome. I was able to sleep and meditate without any problem.

Then starting in July 2015 I underwent repetetive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) for treatment of depression. After 6 weeks my treatment was stopped because my depression was not lessening. A few days later I noticed that the ringing in my left ear was much louder than before. So loud in fact that I could no longer sleep or meditate. It is now a fast high pitched sound that is making me feel suicidal. I'm even beginning to hear some ringing in my right ear as well. I don't know what to do now.

 

Unfortunately this work is still very much in the early stages, but several studies have found that particular TMS protocols can have a beneficial effect on tinnitus -- so it seems quite possible to me that other protocols could have a detrimental effect.

Of course, stress and anxiety can also increase tinnitus, and sometimes tinnitus just has a mind of its own.

If you're substantially wealth, the Stubbeman Clinic in LA claims to have some expertise in this regard with TMS, and might be a good starting point. (I was quoted ~35-40K USD for the full treatment, but a consultation about your specific situation might be a different matter).

From what I have read, problems as a result of TMS are thought to improve with time.

 

40 k ...shit , and does nothing I am sure

 

Hi Sandip,
I think it will settle down.
As tinnitus comes from the Limbic part of the brain where our feelings come from it may have triggered a spike.
See your doctor and he might give you something to help you.
Im sorry your depression is bad and I totally understand about that and hope you have a understanding family and friends to help you.

Welcome pm me anytime or phone me if in the uk....lots of love glynis.

 

My TMS treatment for depression was covered by my insurance which is CareFirst. I only had a $40 copay per session. Still expensive but affordable for me. I had about 28 sessions.

 

Thanks glynis.

 

This is awful! Perhaps after some time it will settle. I guess it could have over excited some nerves as they work by electrical signal don't they? In time maybe it will settle back down.

 

I hope so.

 

Hi Sandip;

i'm going for the rTMS on december (because now i'm working). Maybe that comorbidity between tinnitus and depression make it worse. I hope you recover soon. If the depression improve, the tinnitus should improve like a consequence of phisiological establishment in the brain. I cross the fingers for you! Hold on!

 

Joan A.,

Are you going for rTMS for treatment of depression or tinnitus? After 6 weeks of rTMS my depression did not improve, I believe it got worse. A few days after the treatment stopped, I noticed that my T was much louder and higher pitched. It's been a month now and it still hasn't gone down.

 

I received tms in 2018 and it didn’t really work. Just recently I’ve noticed tinnitus in my right ear. It’s not constant steady ringing, it sounds more like a bell every few seconds. I’ve never experienced this before I’m wondering if yours ever got better.

 

Wow.
$35-40k.
You can get 6-8 courses of stem cells and PRP injected into your ears and intravenous for this price...

Why is industry promoting risky and questionable treatments or habituation when you have studies that show can restore hearing???

Doctors suggested me to do TMS too... After reading some stories here it seems to be a Russian roulette or complete waste of money.

 

Outside the US, at clinics that would almost certainly not withstand FDA scrutiny? Sure, but there's no good reason to think that these treatments will help your tinnitus, either.

 

I found a government university where they did intratympanic mesenchymal stem cells before.
It's not some shady clinic in Mexico or Asia.

People with sudden hearing loss who get treated with steroids regain their hearing and most of the time tinnitus goes away which suggests hearing restoration have great potential to reduce or eliminate tinnitus.

 

Cool, can I see citations? I see a ton of research, mostly other mammals but some in humans, where IT mesenchymal stem cells have been tried, in some cases with an apparent restorative effect on humans. But, that's not the same thing as "we have an established protocol that's been validated through hundreds of human test subjects". There's nowhere in the US you can just go, right now, to get such a procedure -- and changing that is going to require someone to do a bunch of phase I / II studies. This is the same with most stem tech in the US -- some research, some hopeful things, very little in terms of agreed upon, widespread protocols, let alone availability for people of average means.

I'd also like to see your basis for "most of the time", because my reading on the prednisone literature is a bit more pessimistic. That is, prednisone has the most strongly documented beneficial effect in the case of SSHL (and not acoustic trauma), but even there the studies are a little conflicted, and the one thing that's consistent is that time lag between loss and steroids is critical, and they are not much use at all after more than a couple days. In the case of acoustic trauma the data is even more jumbled, with a couple studies finding a clear benefit (though, again, only within a very narrow window following the trauma) and a couple other studies showing not much benefit.

I had an ENT describe immediate steroids following SSHL as "a bit of a long shot, but it does seem to help to some extent, in some cases", so that's always been my take on it. If I woke up with a random 40db loss I would definitely try it, but I would not expect it to fix me.

 

WOW $40,000!!! Whose are some expensive electromagnetic waves.

Dr. Stubbman