Sound Therapy for Cats Prevents Tinnitus

[Nick M]

I was reading an article in the Journal of Neuroscience titled "Ringing Ears: The Neuroscience of Tinnitus" URL: https://www.jneurosci.org/content/30/45/14972

I came across the study where when cats are exposed to loud noise that would normally result in tinnitus. If they go through recovery in an "enhanced acoustic environment (EAE)", they do not develop tinnitus. They state when this is applied to humans that the results are "inconclusive":

In cats with noise-induced hearing loss, 3 weeks of recovery in quiet resulted in changes of the cortical tonotopic map in AI that were accompanied by increased SFR and increased neural synchrony in the reorganized areas (Noreña and Eggermont, 2005, 2006). However, if, instead, recovery was in an enhanced acoustic environment (EAE), with frequency content and level such that it balanced the activity of auditory nerve fibers across the cat's full frequency range, the reorganized tonotopic map typical of noise-exposed cats (Fig. 1a) could be prevented, and both SFR and R were within normal limits (Noreña and Eggermont, 2005, 2006). This was interpreted as evidence that the biological substrates of tinnitus were now absent and tinnitus was likely prevented as well. Sound therapies based on this study have yielded inconclusive results in humans (Moffat et al., 2009).

The question I have is why are we not recommended to go through sound therapy along with the typical steroid injections when we have sound trauma? I mean, what's there to lose? It could in fact prevent you from permanently getting tinnitus during the recovery period. Even though the study says it's "inconclusive" for humans. I'd like to know exactly how this was done and if the patients religiously stuck to the sound therapy during the recovery period. This study also shows that there's a critical time window between the trauma and recovery that is crucial in preventing tinnitus. I'd like to see more trails in this area. Maybe there's a brew of drugs, magnetic stimulation and sound therapy when combined could prevent tinnitus during this critical recovery window.

Doctors should treat this recovery window with more urgency and perhaps give the patient all available options for reducing the chance of developing tinnitus. You're lucky to get steroid pills right now. Complete fail for ENTs IMO.

 

[JohnAdams]

I was reading an article in the Journal of Neuroscience titled "Ringing Ears: The Neuroscience of Tinnitus" URL: https://www.jneurosci.org/content/30/45/14972

I came across the study where when cats are exposed to loud noise that would normally result in tinnitus. If they go through recovery in an "enhanced acoustic environment (EAE)", they do not develop tinnitus. They state when this is applied to humans that the results are "inconclusive":

The question I have is why are we not recommended to go through sound therapy along with the typical steroid injections when we have sound trauma? I mean, what's there to lose? It could in fact prevent you from permanently getting tinnitus during the recovery period. Even though the study says it's "inconclusive" for humans. I'd like to know exactly how this was done and if the patients religiously stuck to the sound therapy during the recovery period. This study also shows that there's a critical time window between the trauma and recovery that is crucial in preventing tinnitus. I'd like to see more trails in this area. Maybe there's a brew of drugs, magnetic stimulation and sound therapy when combined could prevent tinnitus during this critical recovery window.

Doctors should treat this recovery window with more urgency and perhaps give the patient all available options for reducing the chance of developing tinnitus. You're lucky to get steroid pills right now. Complete fail for ENTs IMO.

There's all kinds of early interventions like IT dexamethasone injections that they aren't offering us.

 

[just1morething]

There's all kinds of early interventions like IT dexamethasone injections that they aren't offering us.

I got a feeling they don't feel they're effective. Paparella and Shea used to do them. I think Silverstein may still offer their Microwick which you self administer dexamethasone. Not positive on that though.