Can Antidepressants (In My Case, Venlafaxine) Cause Unilateral Tinnitus? Is It Permanent?

[mawkes]

Hi, I'm super new here so I really appreciate if anyone reads this!

I'm 27 and developed unilateral tinnitus after 1 month on Venlafaxine (SNRI antidepressant). Before that I was on Fluoxetine (SSRI) for ~1.5 years before stopping a few months earlier. About a month into having the tinnitus, my GP and I realised it could be a side effect of the Venlafaxine and took me off it cold turkey. However, she thought it was unlikely to be the cause because a) I was on the lowest dose for a short period of time and b) my tinnitus was unilateral. I was checked for anything obvious like an ear infection. One thing with the Venlafaxine that I didn't get with SSRIs is the severe 'brain zaps', vertigo and dizziness when starting and ending it - these all are balance/ear related side effects, so I'm almost not surprised it could have manifested into tinnitus.

It's been 2 months since being off and I still have tinnitus. I've just started a new antidepressant now (Mirtazapine) because I was not doing well without anything. It's an atypical antidepressant and unlike the SNRI, it doesn't have tinnitus listed as a side effect on the BNF (I'm in the UK) so I'm quite hopeful it won't make things any worse. My tinnitus is always there, but it comes in waves as to how much I notice it. I saw an ENT this week who ordered an MRI just in case because of the unilateral nature of it, did a simple fork hearing test which was fine, and is thinking it is caused by the medication. What they couldn't tell me (understandably) is whether it will ever go away or get better. We'll have a review after the MRI and if it's negative, well, that's obviously good news but leaves me with nothing to go off but 'wait and see'. He has already just pointed me to online tinnitus organizations and some local support groups which, the fact he did that, honestly felt more dismissive than supportive.

So some questions...

• Has anyone else heard much or done research about -specifically- unilateral tinnitus caused by antidepressants? It does seem odd it would only affect one ear but hey, I'm no scientist.
• Does anyone have experience with antidepressant-induced tinnitus and did it ever get better or completely resolve? Or are SNRIs/SSRIs truly ototoxic and can actually damage your ear permanently? I'm seeing conflicting things online for whether the tinnitus they cause is because of (permanent) cochlea hair cell damage or something more complicated to do with serotonin in the brain.
• Could the medication be a red herring and should I push for more tests/investigations into the cause?

I'm thinking of booking a hearing test just to get a better picture of things. Although the ENT didn't seem concerned about my hearing during the simple tuning fork hearing test, I did struggle to identify whether one side sounded louder when he put the fork on my forehead because the tone/pitch was so similar to the tinnitus in my right ear. It didn't seem a very thorough test.

Honestly, any advice or similar experiences would be so useful, especially if your tinnitus is one-sided. Thanks so much in advance!

 

[DimLeb]

First off, sorry this is happening to you. I have no experience with antidepressants, but I have read a lot of stories on this forum and I can say for sure that all antidepressants can cause tinnitus. It's rare, but it happens. I suggest you try and get off any of them, because you play a risky game taking them. Anything that modulates the chemicals in the brain can worsen (or sometimes improve) tinnitus.

As for the one-sidedness of your tinnitus, I believe it doesn't say much about its origin. This is just a theory (like everything with tinnitus), but changes/damage from any ear can lead to plastic changes to any side of the DCN (part of the brain that is believed to generate the tinnitus). So, you can have head/bilateral tinnitus from a unilateral damage, or vice versa, and so, tinnitus from antidepressants can sometimes be unilateral.

However, unilateral tinnitus is more likely to have a unilateral (obvious) cause like an infection, a tumor, Meniere's disease etc etc, the things that your doctor told you. Still, it's highly recommended to do a full audiometry test (up to 8 kHz) and maybe even better, a high frequency/extended range test (up to 16 kHz) to see where you're at in terms of hearing loss. Tuning forks don't show shit.

I hope I helped a bit, but remember that nobody can really answer for sure those questions you asked unfortunately, not even the greatest ear doctors.

 

[Mo8409]

Hello! I just read your thread and your story is the same as mine! I'm 2 months into the tinnitus club after taking a quarter of the lowest dose of Buspar for 3 weeks. They wanted me to take 5 mg three times daily and I only took 5 mg once daily. I noticed a slight ring when waking up but it went away so I didn't think much on it. Then a few days after that I woke up with a big ringing that never went away. I had it in the right ear only up until now but as time goes on it almost sounds like both? I can't tell really because my right side is so loud that it could be vibrating my left.

My CT and MRI have came back fine. I go back for the MRI contrast in June. My hearing test came back fine. No hearing loss. Unfortunately even though my MRI came back normal, they did find a chiari malformation. That is where your brain herniates out of your skull but I could have had this my entire life and not known. So my journey is to find out how or why that happened.

I never had tinnitus until I touched that stupid Buspar and I have the hearing sensitivity that comes and goes with it. Right now I think I'm experiencing a spike, it's louder in the last few days.

Don't feel alone! We are all struggling and trying to adjust to this horrible condition. I'm struggling too. I cry a lot, lose sleep, am stressed beyond belief. This could get better for us as time goes on. I think we are so new to it that it's a shock to our system, ya know? Good luck!

 

[SarahMLFlemmer]

I got my tinnitus from Accutane.

 

[Tryn2BHopeful]

It doesn't look like @mawkes has been on here since he made this thread, but YES, antidepressants can cause tinnitus.

 

[Nick47]

It's difficult to tell. 100s of millions of people take antidepressants without ever developing tinnitus. Most who develop tinnitus just happen to be on an antidepressant at the time, and for a minority it triggers tinnitus.

 

[WCJohn]

Yeah. It seems it is pretty rare for a person to get tinnitus while on antidepressants (although I did). It can also arise upon cessation, bouts of interdose tolerance, and as a withdrawal effect. The rates of occurrence are low, I believe, but there is some solid data out there that supports the connection.

 

[gameover]

No matter how small the risk is, antidepressants should be flat-out banned, or at least severely limited. Worst depression is more hopeful than tinnitus, let alone tinnitus with depression. Not to mention hyperacusis which you can also get from the poison pills.

I will only ever take them if I reach the end of offing myself.

 

[scared8]

Yeah. It seems it is pretty rare for a person to get tinnitus while on antidepressants (although I did). It can also arise upon cessation, bouts of interdose tolerance, and as a withdrawal effect. The rates of occurrence are low, I believe, but there is some solid data out there that supports the connection.

I quit anxiety meds cold turkey like an absolute idiot and I think that is what worsened me out of nowhere. Is this likely to go back to baseline or is it more likely to be permanent? I messed up bad.

 

[WCJohn]

I quit anxiety meds cold turkey like an absolute idiot and I think that is what worsened me out of nowhere. Is this likely to go back to baseline or is it more likely to be permanent? I messed up bad.

From everything I have read (and at the beginning I did a ton of research and doom-scrolling) it should go back to baseline. The big question is always how long it will take. The consensus is that everyone is different.

 

[SarahMLFlemmer]

How are you, @mawkes?