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It isn't somatic. So it can't be psychosomatic.

This is completely wrong. Both dB and dB SL are relative measures in exactly the same way. The former is relative to an arbitrary standard sound that approximates the hearing threshold of a normal-hearing person. The latter is relative to a sound that matches the hearing threshold of a...

Stephen, you may recall that I went through a major worsening of my tinnitus, along with sudden hearing loss, not that many years ago. I had succeeded in getting back to normal (for me anyway!) a couple of years after my tinnitus first arrived in 1989. I remember talking with you at the time. I...

@dan, I'm very familiar with drug-related research sponsored by the ATA, as I am with Billy Martin's work. My advice is just to call this a petition for a retigabine study and not a retigabine trial. The word trial carries with it a lot of unintended meaning.

Avoid the word, "trial." I had just skimmed this thread, and that word--as Dr. Nagler mentioned it might--implied something huge to me.

If we are trying to get a drug approved for tinnitus, it will require (in all places I'm familiar with) a clinical trial of some size and rigor. Such a trial can cost way, way more than ATA or any other such charity can afford. Drug trials are generally funded by the pharmaceutical firm that...

I'm sympathetic to that view, @jarvic. I have some experience in the evaluation of medical research and am published as well. But I came away with a different view after reading the guidelines. I think the panel was pretty well-balanced and knowledgeable. I know a few of its members. At least...

The American Academy of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery Foundation, the medical association for physicians who specialized in disorders of the ears, nose, and throat, recently released the first ever clinical practice guidelines for the treatment of tinnitus. Full text is available here...

Corporations have to make profits for their shareholders. Charity is done for publicity and sometimes to take advantage of tax loopholes. And I'm not sure that tinnitus research publicity would help the sales of the types of firms you just mentioned. I strongly believe that there are two kinds...

I don't think that logic is exactly correct. I know that in my own case, I spent a good while reading research papers and getting familiar with tinnitus from a research standpoint. I think it gave me a more objective and emotionally neutral way of thinking about it. I think one should read the...

@jazz Funding a lot of research, lobbying for government funding of tinnitus research, working to get tinnitus included in the direct activities of government research centers all cost money. The grants cost money, and having people work on these activities in an effective way also costs money...

The "T As" are each very different. The ATA--which is the only one I know in detail--solicits competitive proposals and also lobbies for greater government funding. It also works to establish research centers (government). It exists to do whatever is necessary to cure tinnitus.

I hope people will sign up to donate this weekend, as the deadline is upon us. I know that there are excellent and novel research proposals that are not being funded due to lack of money for them.

Sorry. I really have no information of that type.

You may have to register to read this, but it discusses reasons for fraud and lack of rapid progress in stem cell research: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/825279

If we get down to where we have funded a study of every feasible treatment of tinnitus save LLLT and Fruit Loops, I would support a study of LLLT over one of Fruit Loops.

I almost mentioned that in my post, but it was already way too long. There was some evidence that ginkgo increased blood flow in some cerebral tissues, as I recall. So it was felt to be "active" and "natural." There was also quite a lot of hype both by those trying to sell more of it and by a...

In order for a researcher to decide to do a test of LLLT, he/she has to have some reason to think it might work. We haven't had a randomized trial of Fruit Loops, for instance. Same reason.

Mick, I think we might be in agreement, at least in part. I worked a lot in my career thinking about and researching probabilities. There is a field of mathematics known as Bayesian inference. It uses probabilities to represent the strength of belief in a proposition. Sometimes frequentist...

I think it does help a person who is struggling now. It can have a powerful effect.

Anyone who is seeking hope in LLLT and the like might want to consider participating in an actual clinical trial of (other) tinnitus treatments, or maybe contributing to the ATA's Walk fundraiser. There are good research proposals that go unfunded for lack of money.

I had a physics professor in college who addressed this 100% business very well, I think. I'm a tad older now, but I still remember the class, word for word: "Say that we line up the men in this class against one wall and the women [there were only a few] against the opposite wall. And then we...

Mick, I would argue that there is--in the greater scheme of things--good evidence that LLLT does not help tinnitus. Because if it did, a prospective controlled randomized trial would have been done by now and Dr. Wilden would be rich and famous beyond anyone's dreams. This is not complicated...

As citigirl said, this happens to everyone whether there is tinnitus or hearing loss or not. It can come and go in spells and is normal.

But where does the "years later" bit come from?

I haven't seen research that shows that the hearing loss occurs "years after the exposure." If you are referring to the talk in Providence, I think they said that damage can occur to the synapse of the auditory nerve fiber and the hair cell. This damage--and the resulting change in...

Donations tend to come in in the final week.

Based on my experience, I'd say that broad-based support of tinnitus research from the public is very unlikely, regardless of the type or intensity of efforts to increase awareness. I think we have to leverage the degree that those who suffer from the condition (and their families and friends)...

I'm doing great. But it took me a couple of years.

I doubt they are actually "spikes." I suspect you simply get used to not hearing the tinnitus that loud when the hearing aids are on. Then, when you take them out, you are immediately aware of how bright that tinnitus candle can be. I don't doubt that it's a problem, or can be. I'd guess that I...

There's also the effect of contrast. If you look at a candle in a dark room, it can seem quite bright, yet, with the daylight streaming in, it seems dim. The same is true of sound. If you have only a little hearing loss, the contrast of the tinnitus is reduced by using the hearing aids. When you...

This is normal. It's also normal to hear one's pulse at other times, such at with certain positions when lying down or when straining to lift something.

I don't want to derail things, but I do want to make a counterpoint to mick's complaints about medical studies showing eggs are bad, etc. There never were any such studies. Nutritionists did retrospective studies looking at correlations between certain kinds of diets and published observational...

My tinnitus "tones" are so chaotic, I wouldn't know how to detect new ones. I think new tones come and go (or stay) all the time. But I don't pay attention anymore.

Thunder is loud, but it doesn't last long. It's the combination of loudness and duration that determines auditory damage. Unless you are outdoors and are practically hit by lightning, I doubt if thunder will harm you. (And if you are hit by lightning, you have other things to deal with...)

As in many other cases, this work on tinnitus by Dr. Shore was initially funded by the American Tinnitus Association. The small directly-funded grants enabled Dr. Shore to compete for much larger funding from government sponsors such as the National Institutes of Health.

Because researchers can't see any reason why LLLT should work; because the evidence so far doesn't indicate that it works; because they have more promising things to pursue.

One of the tinnitus "treatments" that has been studied in a large randomized controlled trial is ginkgo. It was found not to differ from placebo.

Wonderful post and wonderful photographs!

It's interesting that the more effective treatments for tinnitus and chronic pain at present are similar and involve shifting one's mental focus and thinking.

I think this article in the New York Times today has some lessons for those with intrusive tinnitus. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/11/business/a-soldiers-war-on-pain.html?ref=business&_r=0 Jim

The comparison of TRT and Neuromonics is first-rate.

It took a long time, but I came to enjoy silence again. I guess it's a bit like viewing a beautiful sunset through dirty glasses, but it still works.

My tinnitus is always on. The migraines tend to come in bunches, unpredictably. They are visual only--I see pinwheels and all the usual visual migraine entertainment. A migraine ends within about 40 minutes; the tinnitus goes on forever but I mostly don't notice it. I'm a photographer now that...

Ashley, I'm a research psychologist (a bit older than 22) who studied sensory processes and perception in grad school. My tinnitus came on about the same time I developed ocular migraines, and both appeared a few months after having a serious surgery. I still get the migraines off and on, and...

The ATA does lobby for tinnitus research and has been successful at getting the US government to target tinnitus in a special funding program that--with support from those who are afflicted--could grow very large. Studies that are directly funded are funded according to a competitive proposal...

Why would myelin be damaged in farmers, musicians, and others who have tinnitus and hearing loss? I don't see any reason for it. Nerves don't "wear out" from use.

I haven't seen the paper, only the abstract you posted. I've never heard of the journal. When a researcher compares a placebo with a treatment, the way it is reported is by indicating how likely the observed results are if the treatment has no effect. It's a bit odd, but that's the way it's...

I've never before seen an abstract of a randomized controlled trial without statistical significance levels.

I don't know what drugs you are taking for your glaucoma, but I doubt that they caused the tinnitus. Can you tell us what drugs you take?

Altering the sound of the tinnitus with neck movements and the like is normal. Sensory inputs from muscles interact with auditory inputs in the brainstem. This has been an area of research and continues to be of interest to researchers. Even people without tinnitus can experience it with...

I don't think LLLT works for tinnitus. Nothing about it makes any sense, and there hasn't been a randomized controlled trial showing efficacy.

I agree. But I think this cure may work only for certain types of hearing loss. I doubt that it will work for someone with "normal" hearing, for instance. There's been research on this and the results are mixed. Sometimes a cochlear implant will eliminate or greatly reduce the tinnitus...

There are a lot of research papers that examine auditory neuroplasticity in animals and humans. It is a well-established fact. Plasticity remains in the adult. One of the practical implications of plasticity in the auditory system is that hearing aids or implants can cause changes which then...

Wilden has TRT all wrong. His paper is an incredible hatchet job.

Oops. I think this thread got moved to "Alternative Treatments" while I was writing my post!

I don't agree with this characterization of the (neuro-)auditory system. For starters, I wouldn't characterize it as an electric circuit. It is not electric and it is not a circuit. I read another post somewhere here the other day in which the poster felt that a loud sound had sent an electrical...

The major problem with the lead post in this topic was the original title given to it, which further sensationalized and distorted the story.

Think about how different this might have played out here and how differently it would affect newbies if a journal article instead of a news item had been posted about the same subject. It is the sensationalism that makes it inappropriate where newly afflicted and frightened people come.

I'm a bit conflicted on this issue. Tinnitus forums have had people talk about killing themselves. They have had people kill themselves. It is even possible that the woman who is the subject of the news story was a participant of this forum, given that most people here choose to be anonymous...