The Search for a Cure (Responses from Dr. Roland Schaette)

[Golly]

ok, didn't know that... is this drug available?

I think so. But it is an epilepsy drug, which means that its use as a treatment of tinnitus would be "off-label." Of course, this doesn't mean you won't be able to get a prescription, as all drugs prescribed for tinnitus are off-label! The problem is that retigabine has some nasty side effects that might make your doctor reluctant to prescribe.

-Golly

 

[tomytl]

I think so. But it is an epilepsy drug, which means that its use as a treatment of tinnitus would be "off-label." Of course, this doesn't mean you won't be able to get a prescription, as all drugs prescribed for tinnitus are off-label! The problem is that retigabine has some nasty side effects that might make your doctor reluctant to prescribe.

-Golly

Thank you Golly.. I wasn't so much in this subject. I have to ask, and if it's off-label, so I am afraid
I won't get it...

Greets tomytl

 

[DebS]

When is a cure for tinnitus likely to be developed?

I believe that we are getting closer to developing a cure for tinnitus, since intensive research efforts during the past decade have laid a solid foundation upon which translational research can now start to build up. We are really beginning to understand what happens in the brain when tinnitus develops, and the latest animal studies have highlighted potential targets that might be amenable to specific interventions. It now looks like it will be possible to develop a pill for tinnitus, or to alleviate tinnitus through specific acoustic and electric stimulation paradigms with longlasting effects. It is difficult to predict when exactly these approaches will make the transition from basic science to clinical studies and beyond, since the devil might be in the detail and more research is still needed, but I am optimistic that it will be in the not too distant future.

I would be happy with a TREATMENT that worked in lieu of a cure. I can take a Tylenol to get rid of a headache, but there's nothing I can take to stop the incessant noise. It really wears me down!!

 

[Grace]

I would be happy with a TREATMENT that worked in lieu of a cure. I can take a Tylenol to get rid of a headache, but there's nothing I can take to stop the incessant noise. It really wears me down!!

Thats whats gonna come first i think... Either am 101 which will down the noise down for some and then aut00063 which will prob do the same if it works out and then all that combined with some stimulation of the brain or whatever there doing in trials now and everything else thats being created something will have an effect on all types of T like they said its not gonna be a one type cure until we get there but treatments to down the volume will be coming and people will just have try out everything and find oit what makes there volume go downnnnn. And like the stimulation thing.. You may have to do it for everyday if it works but hey id take some time out of my day to do that if it quiets the T

 

[JohnG]

after reading several research papers, I think that tinnitus is the inequation between inhibition and activation. A stressful event might lead to loss of inhibition of tinnitus, while a special type of hearing loss can trigger a special type of disfunction in the inner hair cells. You might still have no detectable hearing loss. but in order to hear no tinnitus you need the hair cells to be sending completely random spikes in silence. but one of the hair cells is sending spikes not in the right timing or randomality then you will hear a sound. Besides, the moment you hear tinnitus you have a small hearing loss - since you won't be able to hear extremely very faint sounds of the same tinnitus tone - the tinnitus will mask those sounds to a small degree.. that's what I believe although many ENTs will tell you that hearing the tinnitus tone does not change the hearing test results.
This is why some people with hearing loss have no tinnitus and vice versa. this is a special type of inner ear cells dysfunction.
Tinnitus probably isn't a true or false phenomena. it is undetectable when there is more inhibition than excitation. if a guy without tinnitus will take klonopin and the moment he stops taking the klonopin he receives a tinnitus (and such withdrawl effects have occurred), then it means that he had tinnitus in daily life - just undetectable - due to natural inhibition.

This was probably my case. I was coming off of zolpidem when it hit me hard ...and I was also having withdrawal symptoms. This drug acts on the GABA receptors and obviously caused some kind of chain reaction in the inner ear. I hope mine will resolve soon but it has been almost 3 months now. Seems that there must be a drug to stop this chain reaction.

 

[Hudson]

ok, didn't know that... is this drug available?

Yes, it's an anti-epileptic. There was one guy here at one point that was going to try and get it prescribed off label.

 

[Tom KW]

i'm sure that sooner or later one of these researchers will crack the nut and come up with a cure or a maintenance program for T. unfortunately I believe that the maintenance program is what they are all looking for, let's face it folks, investors don't want to see a 1 time pill and you're cured. they won't get return on their investment that way.
but I am sure for those of us who suffer from T will take whatever they give us as long as the noise goes away.