Neosensory — Bimodal Stimulation Device for Tinnitus: Any Reviews? A Scam or Not?

[momus]

I went to PubMed.gov to look at this. Sounds impressive, doesn't it? But it's merely a blurb from the NLM, or National Library of Medicine, which states "PubMed® comprises more than 35 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites." It's just a copy/paste sort of thing.

It also clearly states "Copyright © 2020 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works." and "Currently, there is no clinically recommended drug or device treatment for this major health condition."

So much for that. I'm new to this forum but not new to tinnitus. I worked for years with medical research companies (and was on the board of directors of one in Virginia) whose clients were entities like O.S.H.A. and the E.P.A., along w/ major pharmaceutical companies. I can do medical research, and worked w/ a team that gathered factual information that was presented to Congress in order to update the E.P.A./O.S.H.A., P.E.L. standards (Permissible Exposure Limits), which are legal Federal guidelines on maximum exposures limits to "Toxic and Hazardous Materials and Chemicals in the Workplace." That was the name of our landmark research study that surveyed over 5,000 different business across America, including hospitals and other medical branches.

It saddens me to see so very many spurious claims circulating w/ zero actual proof that any of it works.

 

[CJP]

I am on my third week using this device 10 minutes per day and I have only missed one day so far. I plan to use as much of the first 30 days as possible before making a decision on trying it for another 30 days. So far I have not noticed a big difference one way or another, but it does seem that the "raging days" have been less. I have tinnitus in my left ear only and have only some mild hearing loss in that ear. I do find it a bit amazing that you can feel the effect in the ear when using the device. It is not an uncomfortable feeling. I do think that after the treatment the tinnitus is louder in volume, but then reduces as the evening goes on. I certainly sympathize with all my fellow sufferers who are searching for relief. I hope you all find some peace at some point.

 

[Ryan Scott]

I am on my third week using this device 10 minutes per day and I have only missed one day so far. I plan to use as much of the first 30 days as possible before making a decision on trying it for another 30 days. So far I have not noticed a big difference one way or another, but it does seem that the "raging days" have been less. I have tinnitus in my left ear only and have only some mild hearing loss in that ear. I do find it a bit amazing that you can feel the effect in the ear when using the device. It is not an uncomfortable feeling. I do think that after the treatment the tinnitus is louder in volume, but then reduces as the evening goes on. I certainly sympathize with all my fellow sufferers who are searching for relief. I hope you all find some peace at some point.

How much does the device cost in total? I didn't fully understand the pricing on their website.

 

[CJP]

How much does the device cost in total? I didn't fully understand the pricing on their website.

$249 per month for four months. Plus tax. Full refund if returned within the first 30 days.

 

[CJP]

I must have jinxed myself yesterday by posting that my "raging" days have lessened as today my tinnitus is quite loud. I would rate it at a 7 out of 10.

I have spent some time today familiarizing myself with this entire forum. There is so much good information here. So many potential options for relief. It is encouraging, but at the same time a little overwhelming. How do I find what will help me? Trial and error I guess.

I did download the TinnitusPlay app and will check that out at home tonight. This app has multiple tools and I will not try it in earnest until I make my decision on Neosensory at the end of this week.

 

[CJP]

Well, I will be sending the Neosensory back.

I had a bad experience yesterday evening when I used the device for 10 minutes as I usually do. Afterwards my tinnitus was raging. Probably the worst it has ever been for me. This was around 6 PM. When I went to bed at 10 PM, the volume had not decreased. I had a terrible time getting any sleep and was deeply concerned my tinnitus would not go back to baseline. Thankfully I did get some rest and when the alarm went off, my tinnitus was back to baseline. However, my left ear feels "full" and it a bit sound sensitive.

I have an appointment with my ENT, but not until April 28. I downloaded a book on CBT as I am looking for a way to cope for now.

Any suggestions from the forum? There are so many things I could try. I am looking for some guidance. Thank you.

 

[Alberte]

Well, I will be sending the Neosensory back.

I had a bad experience yesterday evening when I used the device for 10 minutes as I usually do. Afterwards my tinnitus was raging. Probably the worst it has ever been for me. This was around 6 PM. When I went to bed at 10 PM, the volume had not decreased. I had a terrible time getting any sleep and was deeply concerned my tinnitus would not go back to baseline. Thankfully I did get some rest and when the alarm went off, my tinnitus was back to baseline. However, my left ear feels "full" and it a bit sound sensitive.

I have an appointment with my ENT, but not until April 28. I downloaded a book on CBT as I am looking for a way to cope for now.

Any suggestions from the forum? There are so many things I could try. I am looking for some guidance. Thank you.

Hello CJP, what did your ENT say about your Neosensory experience?

 

[ImmortalWombat]

Any updates on Neosensory?

 

[kingsfan]

Any updates on Neosensory?

It's too expensive for anyone to really give it a shot.

 

[dd314]

Neosensory recently published a controlled trial of their device and found it to be quite effective for tinnitus. What do you all think of this? The control had no vibration, so they were still in theory susceptible to placebo.

 

[WilRic]

For what it's worth, I also tried the Neosensory Duo fairly consistently (at least 10 minutes) for 2 months. Here are my observations:

1. The app relies on you being able to match your primary tinnitus frequency. I'm pretty good at matching mine (confirmed in a few 'tinnitus tests' with audiologists). I don't have hearing loss in my tinnitus frequency, which is usually around 14 kHz (confirmed by extended range audiograms). However, the app produces tones that are an octave above the identified tinnitus frequency. In my case, that is totally inaudible so I 'miss' half the tones.
   
   
2. It seems to do "something" to my tinnitus percept - but I wouldn't call it an improvement. As others have reported, it sort of temporarily "chops up" the sound and changes it from a sine wave to a sawtooth wave. It's interesting that it seems to have an effect of any kind. It's disappointing that it doesn't really seem to make much of an improvement.
   
   
3. I think the app is a bit broken. I use it on an Android device and when the screen turns off the app causes a notification to appear in the notification shade. When this happens, the timing of the tones is disrupted and one "long tone" happens. This seems to cause the tones to become slightly out of sync with the haptic feedback (although, see below about that).
   
   
4. Towards the end of my use, I did an experiment. I used headphones but without the armband. I did this a few times (~5) and experienced exactly the same change in my tinnitus that using the device would cause. That would seem to indicate that it's not really doing anything in terms of bimodal stimulation. It's possible that prolonged use of the device might have an effect compared to just auditory stimulation (which is consistent with their paper in the International Tinnitus Journal). However, I'm sceptical. My guess is that it's doing something similar to the effects that ACRN has on many people. That is, a kind of residual inhibition by audio stimulation alone. The differences reported in their paper can easily be ascribed to the placebo effect, which as we all know is very significant in tinnitus.
   
   
5. My tinnitus intensity fluctuates significantly day-to-day (from 11/10 to 0.5/10). When I used the device on a "very good day" it actually seemed to spike my tinnitus for the remainder of the day. That happened a few times. The effect wasn't permanent and only lasted a few hours.

Because of #4 and #5 I ultimately stopped using the device. I note that in their paper, they say they implemented haptic feedback on the wrist to: "challenge the hypothesis that the bimodal signals need to converge at the dorsal cochlear nucleus." Unfortunately, they don't provide any kind of alternative modal for how a vibrating wrist band would influence tinnitus in the brain in any way. It's difficult to see how it could. That said, to someone unfamiliar with tinnitus the Shore device must also look implausible.

I think the real problem is signal timing. As many others on this forum would know, signal timing seems to be a crucial aspect of bimodal stimulation devices. Yet this paper also confirms that: "Tones were played through a phone app in a random order and with random timing." It's very difficult to understand how random tones would have any effect at all. They should be linked to the haptic feedback pulses in some way.

I'm in two minds about the device. Determining whether you need to 'hit' the DCN for bimodal stimulation to work is valuable research. If it turns out that any kind of secondary stimulation is sufficient, that would make the therapy much cheaper and more widely available. However, I think Neosensory were lazy in the way they went about testing this hypothesis.

To be fair, it's pretty obvious the tinnitus therapy was an afterthought for the device. Unlike a lot of snake oil 'treatments' Neosensory haven't sold it as a gold-standard cure, either. They also seem to honour their money back guarantee. I don't think it really does anything useful - and my experience adds to the consensus here. But if anyone is thinking of trying the device, I think there is minimal harm.

EDIT:

I should correct my post, the paper indicates that the haptic pulses were at least timed in accordance with the audio tones. It's just that the tones/pulses were totally random. In particular:

The app played the tones while sending spatially- and temporally- corresponding vibrations to the wristband via Bluetooth. These vibrations were spread evenly across the wrist in a logarithmic manner, such that an octave spanned the same spatial distance regardless of its frequency...

 

[Bead Artist]

I tried Neosensory for two months and had absolutely no change in my tinnitus. I was hoping for a miracle. I did use it twice a day, 10 minutes each time, sometimes 15 minutes. By the second month, I returned the device and I was given my money back for the second month.

Onto the next miracle, whatever that will be!

 

[Toby1972]

For what it's worth, I also tried the Neosensory Duo fairly consistently (at least 10 minutes) for 2 months. Here are my observationsMy tinnitus intensity fluctuates significantly day-to-day (from 11/10 to 0.5/10). When I used the device on a "very good day" it actually seemed to spike my tinnitus for the remainder of the day. That happened a few times. The effect wasn't permanent and only lasted a few hours.

First: mathematically there is no 11/10.

Second: There is no 11/10 if you don't even know where your tinnitus comes from.

Third: With SSHL, the tinnitus fluctuates by a maximum of 3-4 points. So you have a maximum tinnitus of 0.5 to a maximum of 4/10.

Congratulations, you've only had tinnitus for 5 months, a maximum tinnitus of 4/10 will soon be compensated for. So you don't need to do any further equipment or tests.

 

[WilRic]

First: mathematically there is no 11/10.

Second: There is no 11/10 if you don't even know where your tinnitus comes from.

Third: With SSHL, the tinnitus fluctuates by a maximum of 3-4 points. So you have a maximum tinnitus of 0.5 to a maximum of 4/10.

Congratulations, you've only had tinnitus for 5 months, a maximum tinnitus of 4/10 will soon be compensated for. So you don't need to do any further equipment or tests.

Thanks so much for taking the time to correct that. My tinnitus must have been affecting my brain more than I thought not to realise there was no such thing as 11/10 mathematically...

Thank you also for correcting my subjective experience of tinnitus loudness and reminding me that I've "only" had it for 5 months.

But most of all - thanks for reminding me of how much of a closed shop this place is.