Why Is There No Cure for Tinnitus?

It doesn't quite offer a solution to it but it's definitely interesting to see how they put all the reasons why we haven't found a cure for tinnitus in perspective.

My tinnitus derived from years of being careless while listening to super loud music. While I did find relief with an OTC med called Lipo-Flavonoid, I understand how everything works in different ways and what works for me, unfortunately, may not work for somebody else.

 

I haven't read the article yet, but I feel the biggest reason there is no cure is because no one takes it as a serious condition. We need documentaries on tv telling how people have committed suicide over this. Show soldiers who have limbs amputated and tinnitus, but if they only had once choice would prefer to get rid of the tinnitus rather than having limbs again. Tinnitus is usually taken as a trivial thing, but the mental torture it can afflict on a person needs to be put to the forefront.

Once it gets the attention it requires, then maybe more research funding will be put towards a cure. The military needs to put up more funding, but you will have to make them do it.

Too often tinnitus is put across in a jokey way, this needs to change.

 

At least we have William Shatner going on TV and Twitter telling people that he can block it out by reading a book.

 

Yeah. Things like that make me question if Free Speech is such a good idea after all.

 

I wish i could read a book with T. Can I hell.

Need the relatives of people who have committed suicide, need servicemen up there, need famous people who really are suffering from it up there.

Need petitions with 10s of thousands of signatures sending to government. But getting those signatures is hard.

 

In the UK over 500,000 GBP was awarded to a Royal Marine because he got tinnitus and hearing loss:- https://www.crownofficechambers.com...-for-noise-induced-hearing-loss-and-tinnitus/

People like that need contacting. And there will be many more claimants like him coming along. Make the military ashamed that it isn't doing enough for research into a cure.

 

Call me crazy (please don't call me crazy ) but I think we should be researching this on our own here and really putting forth some effort to figure this out. It could be fruitless bit we should try.

Just take curcumin for instance, while it doesn't work for everyone, it does help some of us to a degree, which is more than any ENT will recommend. I strongly believe we have power here. We know noise trauma can cause hearing loss and tinnitus but not everyone with hearing loss has tinnitus. I've done a bit of research and I have some formal education in medicine. I would be more than happy to help in an effort like this.

 

Hey, you guys have a HUGE record of tinnitus patient experience at your finger tips. You are info wealthy. Perhaps you should hire some volunteers to scour through all of the posts claiming success or failure with certain techniques and then put each of the respondents into some well thought out demographic categories???? I'm sure you have already thought about these things.

I dunno just a thought.

 

It's because like most conditions there are 100 different causes. How many different kinds of Hodgkins disease have been identified? It's like 20... or something, maybe more. Every condition is like this. There's no one treatment for everyone.

 

I have watched a few of William Shatner videos but never heard him say he can block out his tinnitus by reading a book. This is a gross misrepresentation of tinnitus and to make such a comment proves he has no idea how debilitating it can be when it is severe, unlike his which is very mild.

Tinnitus comes in many forms and intensities and no two people experience it the same. As a (one time) celebrity, William Shatner may believe he's doing good but this kind of negative counselling, can do a lot of harm to someone that is having a difficult time coping with tinnitus.

Michael

 

I'm not sure what help I can be but I also have a formal education in medicine (DVM-- but I am able to at least read and digest the differences) and am willing to offer my assistance.

 

I always thought William Shatner's tinnitus was worst of the worst, like a jet engine in his brain?

 

If the number of those suffering from tinnitus is even somewhat accurate, that in itself can equate to millions of signatures/donations. Let alone family and friends of those suffering. The money for research is out there. We just need to get together to get the ball rolling.

 

Red tape. Too many rules and regulations that hinder progress.

 

Evidently, this is not the case if he can block out his tinnitus by reading a book. I am an avid reader and was unable to read for two years because my tinnitus was so severe. I have variable tinnitus which changed to this back in 2008. It took four years to habituate for the 2nd time. My tinnitus can still reach severe levels and I am unable to read and fully concentrate when it is this intrusive.

Michael

 

I've emailed a documentary filmmaker I loosely know to see if he is interested in making a film/series. May so no, but no harm in trying.

 

It was on his twitter.

 

Got a reply and they are interested in knowing more about the idea.

Trying to think what could be included:

- veterans
- suicide
- quality of life
- different types of tinnitus
- reasons for no cure / research funding / not considered serious condition / doctor says live with it

I think those are the main ones. Don't need to make it too complicated.

 

John, this isn't that crazy at all. And as it happens, we're developing a bolus of talent in experimental research in the group (myself, @lcj, at least), who could help to guide some really high-quality, publishable research into the issue. If the community here is willing, we have the numbers to make a real difference.

 

I think that's an awesome idea @all to gain. Keep us posted (maybe start a new trackable thread?)

 

Happy to contribute to this. There is tonnes we could do, if the community is willing. We'd need numbers though: we can't just have the same 25 people participate in each data collection effort.

 

This could provide *some* information, but the data we'd get from this would be murky, anecdotal. Better to start fresh, develop some well-designed, empirically-valid tools that we could send around to people, and then combine this with additionally well-designed, empirically-valid emotional/cognitive tests (that can often be administered online these days).

This would require some work... but not that much work.

 

Hi @FGG - your offer is officially noted; 100% non-recindable.

 

I actually told my GP a few days ago when he gave me the " there's no treatment" spiel.

What if we looked at Polio, Aids or cancer that way. If nobody tries then failure is guaranteed.

The problem is the prescribed treatment is to ignore it and adapt. Part of that for many is to not talk about it. Therein lies the problem.

 

The loss of potential contributions to society by many individuals ruined by this affliction. Also, the problems it can cause in interpersonal relationships. In addition it's possible link to visual disturbances and dementia.

 

Amazing! I had no idea - do you have links to your previous publications? Would love to check them out. Those numbers are massive - there's tonnes and tonnes that could be done with good quality data like that.

SurveyMonkey is very good; Qualtrics is the other big one, and the one I use more often these days. Building your own portal could have some advantages... but maybe not enough to make it a priority...?

I'm a university professor/researcher in psychology and cognitive/affective neuroscience. I've never studied tinnitus, the ear, or the auditory cortex before; but I'm well-trained in a) survey development, study design, data collection, and statistics, b) cognitive/emotional processing, the limbic system, EEG/MRI/neurostimulation, and c) the scientific publication process. I see Markku just started a PM with me - I'll follow up further there.

 

Doh... I see that you've linked to both the survey and the articles. Fantastic... reading them now.