Tell a Researcher: What Do You Want from a New Tinnitus Treatment?

Hazel

Director
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Staff
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Oct 24, 2017
849
the Netherlands
Tinnitus Since
10/2017
Cause of Tinnitus
one-sided hearing loss (of unknown origin)
Hi everyone,

Our research contacts from UCL have asked us to share a survey with you. Raj Shekhawat and his PhD student Tori Kok are working on a new tinnitus treatment, based on transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS).

Before they start clinical trials for the new treatment — which at the moment they can't do anyway because of Corona — they want to hear from people with tinnitus what they would expect to get out of the treatment. Of course, they are aware that what we all want most is complete elimination of our tinnitus. But if that's not possible, then how much of a reduction would be good enough for you? That's what this survey is all about. You will also be asked to fill in questions about the severity of your tinnitus, to see whether this affects your treatment expectations.

Fill in the Survey!
The survey is completely anonymous and should only take 5-10 minutes of your time.

➡️ Please fill it in here.

The only requirements are that you're over 18 and have had chronic tinnitus for over 6 months. Please find attached a flyer with more information, including contact details.

More About the Treatment
You can hear Raj speak about this study in our latest podcast episode (scroll down and jump to time stamp 30:10). tDCS treatment is non-invasive, i.e. the stimulation takes place through electrodes placed on the head. It's entirely painless.

Attempts to treat tinnitus with tDCS are not new; however, not many trials have been conducted, so we need more evidence on the potential efficacy of the treatment. Trials are also a means of finding the right treatment protocol, i.e. device settings, frequency of sessions, etc. Read more about tDCS in our dedicated thread on this topic.
 

Attachments

  • Survey Recruitment Flyer.pdf
    470.6 KB · Views: 30
Do we know how this UCL team are going to measure tinnitus? Personally I'm not looking for a complete eradication of my tinnitus, however, there's one very high pitch tone in my left ear that if I could wind down the volume a couple of notches would, I think, be a wonderful result.

Having said that, as far as I'm aware there's no realistic means of actually measuring volume of tinnitus in dB and therefore no realistic means of measuring gain reduction. Lots of studies use TFI etc yet without any tangible link between gain reduction and what that means in terms of these psychological metrics we're back in the revolving door.

I can't help feeling that study after study after study that base themselves on these wobbly foundations will all head the same way - down a blind alley. Maybe I should email Raj Shekhawat and ask him about this instead. Dunno...
 
Completed it. I am thrilled to see any research at all. I hope it's promising.
 

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