Vigabatrin, a GABA Transaminase Inhibitor, Reversibly Eliminates Tinnitus in an Animal Model

[JasonP]

Vigabatrin (Sabril®) and tiagabine (Gabitril®), two drugs that act on different aspects of GABAergic neurotransmission, have been studied in an animal model of noise-induced tinnitus. Vigabatrin is used as an anticonvulsant and to treat infantile spasms. It irreversibly inhibits GABA transaminase (GABA-T), the enzyme that catabolizes GABA, thereby increasing GABA levels (115–117). Vigabatrin also induces tonic release of GABA by causing the GABA transporter to operate in reverse (118). Tiagabine is used to treat seizures and panic disorders (119–121) and acts by inhibiting the uptake of GABA via the GAT-1 transporter, thereby increasing the availability of GABA at its receptor (122, 123).

It has been proposed that tinnitus arises from loss of inhibition in the CNS as a result of cochlear deafferentation caused by noise, aging or ototoxic drugs (72, 124–126). To test this hypothesis, noise-exposed rats with behavioral evidence of tinnitus were treated with vigabatrin or tiagabine. Tiagabine did not suppress noise-induced tinnitus; however, vigabatrin suppressed noise-induced tinnitus, and the tinnitus reappeared when treatment was discontinued (73). We are unaware of any clinical trials in which vigabatrin has been used to treat tinnitus; however, given the positive animal data, vigabatrin is a potential drug candidate for a clinical study in tinnitus. However, it is known that the drug can cause irreversible visual disturbances, limiting it use in humans (127).

Source; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3136369/

Could Tiagabine reduce tinnitus in non-noise induced tinnitus? For example, tinnitus caused by otoxic drugs. Anyone tried this drug?

 

[undecided]

No.
I've tried Sabril (which is as close as you can get to tiagabine, as its very hard to get) for quite some time and found it had almost zero effect.
Combined with benzos, it might give you some more down time, that's it.
Stay away, vigabatrin (not tiagabine) has a black box warning for field of vision problems. I bet tiagabine is not very innocent either.
On a more personal note, stop obsessing about tinnitus treatments.
There is none, whatsoever, only very temporary ones.

 

[Ian Mac]

I really don't think you want to play around with neurotransmitters. Especially GABA.

FYI GABA is really important for sexual function along with a myriad of other hormones and nuerotransmitters. You definitely don't want to inhibit GABA. Without GABA you risk overproduction of cortisol, norepinephrine, and a dominance of dopamine without enough serotonin to balance it. This induces fight or flight stress response and likely increases you T.

Also FYI since we're here: Refraining from Ejaculating and only doing it every 2-3 days you maintain GABA, ejaculation (male) causes a dominoe of hormones and it can be very healthy but overdoing it produces a hormonal fire in you brain AND EARS called inflammation and this can cause T. However returning to healthy homeostasis will reduce the inflaming (fire) hormones and nuerotransmitters and any T from this will also decrease. Be easy on yourself, You can still have sex but semen contains a lot of hormones that are critical for your EARS so try to ejaculate less! And waiting an extra day or two makes Sex awesome through the increase in good hormones cuz as time passes they build up. Like Testosterone which is also important to keep high for T regulation.