Tinnitus Increased by Methylprednisolone

[Brooklyn NY]

Hi everyone. I am new to the forum and would like to describe my situation. Since November 5, I have what is probably considered a classic case of tinnitus, sensitive to loud sounds, which would raise the level of ringing for 3-4 days and then go back down. It generally wouldn't bother me too much except quiet rooms.

I was referred by my ENT to another doctor who was more aggressive in trying to treat me. An MRI was negative, and yesterday he started me on methylprednisolone. Within 2 hours my ringing went much higher, and I had side effects from the steroid itself. I refused to take another dose, and 24 hours later, the medication side effects have gone down, but the ringing hasn't. That's my story. Thank you.

 

[billie48]

Welcome to the forum. Thanks for letting us know the danger of methylprednisolone. It looks like it is ototoxic and can aggravate or trigger tinnitus. Hope your tinnitus will keep on fading back to baseline or just disappear. Take care. God bless.

 

[Brooklyn NY]

Hi, thanks for replying, and for the good wishes. My T has gone down from its highest spike on Tuesday. Now it is erratic, at the moment it is higher, hopefully it will go back down later. The steroids I took might help some people, but medication effects everyone differently, so you never know what you are getting yourself into. I am learning that if your T is tolerable it might be better to settle for that than risking what I have gone through for the past 4 days. Have a good night..

 

[John_415]

Hi, thanks for replying, and for the good wishes. My T has gone down from its highest spike on Tuesday. Now it is erratic, at the moment it is higher, hopefully it will go back down later. The steroids I took might help some people, but medication effects everyone differently, so you never know what you are getting yourself into. I am learning that if your T is tolerable it might be better to settle for that than risking what I have gone through for the past 4 days. Have a good night..

Hey Brooklyn NY,
Just curious, did your T go down to the level before or lower after taking Prednisone??
I did 7 days of 30mg recently and the volume when up after day 4 all the way to day 7. Then I stopped at day 7 and it dropped within 4 days slowly to below baseline (ok it changed tone when the volume went up from a morse code to a steady tone in a lower loudness level). Im happy about my results and want to go do Prednisone agains, still not looking forward to any increase again.
You could try hyperbaric oxigen therapy (HBOT) I hear there are less risks involved there (or different ones)
Link to forum post with research:

A couple of studies:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10384896
In this study, we prescribed HBO to 20 patients who had had severe tinnitus for more than one year and who had already had other forms of tinnitus therapy with unsatisfactory results.
Six patients had a reduction of tinnitus and accompanying symptoms, eight patients did not notice any change and two patients experienced an adverse effect. Any outcome persisted with minor changes until one year after treatment. HBO may contribute to the treatment of severe tinnitus, but the negative effect on tinnitus should be weighed carefully.

So in that study HBO was tried for patients who had had tinnitus for more than one year. Six of 20 had a reduction of tinnitus, 8 of 20 had no effect and 2 of 20 experienced an adverse effect.


Another one: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17159373

INTRODUCTION:
The standard treatment of subjective tinnitus hardly reaches the level of placebo controls. Though the effectiveness of hyperbaric oxygenation (HBO) for subjective tinnitus has never been objectified, it is still advocated by some institutions. We analyzed the effectiveness of hyperbaric oxygen treatment in the context of accompanying factors.


PATIENTS AND METHODS:
We randomized 360 patients suffering from tinnitus into 2 HBO treatment protocols (group A: 2.2 bar for 60 min bottom time and group B: 2.5 bar for 60 min bottom time once a day for 15 days). All patients were asked to fill in a questionnaire (social and medical history, tinnitus characteristics, pre-HBO duration of tinnitus, prior therapy, pretreatment expectation, accompanying symptoms). A subjective assessment of the therapeutic effect was obtained.


RESULTS:
Twelve patients (3.3%) experienced complete remission of tinnitus, in 122 (33.9) the intensity lessened, and 44 (12.2%) had a subjectively agreeable change of noise characteristics. No change was found in 157 cases (43.6%) and 25 (6.9%) experienced deterioration. There was no statistically significant difference between groups A and B (p > 0.05). Out of 68 patients with a positive expectation of HBO effects, 60.3% stated that the tinnitus had improved whereas only 47.2 and 19%, respectively, out of patients who underwent therapy with an indifferent (n = 271) or negative expectation (n = 21) reported an improvement. The influence of subjective expectation on the outcome was statistically significant (p < 0.05).


CONCLUSION:
The therapeutic effects of HBO on subjective tinnitus may be substantially influenced by psychological mechanisms.


From that second study it's interesting that the influence of subjective expectation was statistically significant.



Then finally a review: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18225611

OBJECTIVE:
To assess the effect of hyperbaric oxygenation on tinnitus.


METHODOLOGY:
A Medline search from 1960-2007 yielding 22 studies.


RESULTS:
No significant effect could be demonstrated in four prospective studies. Retrospective studies indicate greater improvement in tinnitus in acute cases (49-85%) compared with tinnitus episodes exceeding three months (34-38%). One study, however, showed significantly more improvement in patients with positive expectations before therapy (60.3%) compared with those with negative expectations (19%).


CONCLUSIONS:
There are no significant data about the effect of hyperbaric oxygenation for tinnitus, but there are indications of a better effect in acute cases. However, a major psychological component and a low risk of enhancement of the tinnitus should be considered.

Anyway I hope you recovered well from your increase. Hope to hear what happend.
Regards,
John_415

 

[Brooklyn NY]

Hi, after increasing after the 1 dose of the steroid, my T went down to more or less average levels after 3 days. The almost immediate side effects of the steroid were scary enough, and I guess I didn't have the fortitude to stick with the steroids for a full 6 days. I am just deathly afraid of it getting worse, so for now I will leave it alone. I'm glad to hear that you had a positive response to the medication. Thanks..

 

[John_415]

Well it worked for me, I have noise induced T. So maybe its different as well.
When I checked online I came across a forum of people with a severe lung desease that where using prednisone for years and years, so I tought as a young guy, I should be able to do 1 week.
I also eat a lot of Curcuma which I came across on that forum. Some people there where using it as a natural anti-inflamatory alternative for prednisone. Altough Prednisone is way stronger in my view.

 

[Riderz43]

A week ago I went on prednisone for a back injury. I need to remember to come here and check before taking any meds. The prescription was for 6 mg starting with 7 the first day, 6 the second, and tapering off one a day until a week went by. It spiked my T drastically about the second day. A week later it's still at a very high level almost to the point where I can't sleep which is very unusual in the 1.5 years I have had T. I hope this doesn't last. Within the last few months I've actually had days where the T didn't bother me much. Didn't need this.