Research

SECTIONS: Clinical trials | Other Research

We research carefully when creating an app or service. While no app or online service is a replacement for professional medical advice or medicine, the approaches behind our apps and services are backed by scientific research, some of which you can read below.

Clinical trials into spectrally notched audio therapy for tinnitus retraining

BACK TO TOP

While there is no known cure for tinnitus, its symptoms can often be reduced and controlled with various treatments. Audiologists and ENT doctors may recommend diet or medication-based treatments for some users and, if you have been prescribed medication, you should always continue to follow your medical professional's advice. In order to supplement any tinnitus management regime, you may also want to consider audio therapy for its reported benefits. Below is just some of the research supporting the claims that spectrally-notched audio therapy can help to reduce tinnitus symptoms:

Huang Bixue, Wang Xianren, Wei Fanqing, Sun Qiyang, Sun Jincangjian, Liang Yue, Chen Huiting, Zhuang Huiwen, Xiong Guanxia Notched Sound Alleviates Tinnitus by Reorganization [of] Emotional Center Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
Henning Stracke, Hidehiko Okamoto, and Christo Pantev Customized notched music training reduces tinnitus loudness Communicative & Integrative Biology
Marco Lugli, Romano Romani, Stefano Ponzi, Salvatore Bacciu, and Stefano Parmigiani The Windowed Sound Therapy:A New Empirical Approach for an EffectivePersonalized Treatment of Tinnitus International Tinnitus Journal, Vol. 15, No. 1, 51-61 (2009)
Powers, L., dos Santos, G.M., & Jons, C. (2016, September). Notch Therapy: A new approach to tinnitus treatment. AudiologyOnline, Article 18365.
Adamchic, I., Tass, P.A., Langguth, B., Hauptmann, C., Koller, M., Schecklmann,…Landgrebe, M., (2012). Linking the tinnitus questionnaire and the subjective clinical global impression: Which differences are clinically important? Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, 10, 79.
American Tinnitus Association (n.d.). Retrieved Sept 9, 2016
Baguley, D., (2016). Clinical aspects of tinnitus. Hearing Review, 23(1), 40.
dos Santos, G.M., Bento, R.F., de Medeiros, I.R., Oiticcia, J., da Silva, E.C., & Penteado, S. (2014). The influence of sound generator associated with conventional amplification for tinnitus control: randomized blind clinical trial. Trends in Hearing, 18, 1-9.
Eggermont, J. (2012) Cortex: Way station or locus of the tinnitus percept? In J. Eggermont, F. Zeng, Popper, R. Fay (Eds.), Tinnitus (137-162). New York, NY: Springer Science+Business Media.
Haab, L., Lehser, C., Corona-Strauss, F., Bernarding, C., Seidler, H., Strauss, D., & Hannemann, R. (in submission). Six-month evaluation of a hearing aid supported tinnitus treatment using notched environmental sounds.
Hannemann, R., Haab L., Corona-Strauss, F., & Strauss, D. (2016, September). Long-term evaluation of a new hearing aid supported tinnitus treatment. Poster presented at the meeting of the World Congress of Audiology, Vancouver, Canada.
Henry, J.A., Zaugg, T.L., & Schechter, M.A. (2005) Clinical guide for audiological tinnitus management I: Assessment. American Journal of Audiology, 14, 21-48.
Hiller, W. & Goebel, G. (2004). Rapid assessment of tinnitus-related psychological distress using the Mini-TQ. American Journal of Audiology, 43(10), 600-604.
Hoare, D.J., Searchfield, G.D., Refaie, A.E., & Henry, J. (2014). Sound therapy for tinnitus management: J Am Acad Audiol. 2014 Jan;25(1):62-75. doi: 10.3766/jaaa.25.1.5.
Jastreboff, P. & Hazell, J. (1993). A neurophysiological approach to tinnitus: Clinical implications. British Journal of Audiology, 27, 7-17.
Jastreboff, P. & Jastreboff, M. (2000). Tinnitus retraining therapy (TRT) as a method for treatment of tinnitus and hyperacusis patients. J Am Acad Audiol, 11(3), 162-177.
Kochkin S., Tyler R., & Born, J. (2011). MarkeTrak VIII: The prevalence of tinnitus in the United States and the self-reported efficacy of various treatments. Hearing Review, 18(12), 10-27.
Lanting, C.P., de Kleine, E., & van Dijk, P. (2009, September). Neural activity underlying tinnitus generation: Results from PET and fMRI. Hearing Research, 225(1-2), 1-13.
Melcher, J. (2016). Tinnitus: A multifaceted condition. Audiology Today, 28(1), 32-37.
Moller, A.R. (2011). Epidemiology of tinnitus in adults. In A.R. Moller, B. Langguth, D. DeRidder, & T. Kleinjung (Eds.), Textbook of tinnitus (29-37). New York, NY: SpringerScience+Business Media, LLC.
Okamoto, H., Stracke, H., Stoll, W., & Pantev, C. (2010). Listening to tail-made notched music reduces tinnitus loudness and tinnitus-related auditory cortex activity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107(3), 1207-1210.
Pantev, C., Wolbrink, A., Roberts, L.E., Engelien, A., & Lutkenhoner, B.B. (1999). Short-term plasticity of the human auditory cortex. Brain Research, 842(1), 192-199.
Powers, L., & Munhoes, G. (2015). Acoustic therapy for the treatment of tinnitus: A primer. Hearing Review, 22(6), 22.
Reavis, K,. Chang J., & Zeng, F. (2010). Patterned sound therapy for the treatment of tinnitus. The Hearing Journal, 63(11), 21-24.
Searchfield, G.D., Kaur, M., & Martin, W.H. (2010). Hearing aids as an adjunct to counseling: Tinnitus patients who choose amplification do better than those that don't. International Journal of Audiology, 49(8), 574-579.
Strauss, D.J., Corona-Strauss, F.I., Haab, L., & Hannemann, R. (2015). Notched environmental sounds: a new hearing aid-supported tinnitus treatment evaluated in 20 patients. Clinical Otolaryngology, [Epub ahead of print]. doi: 10.1111/coa.12575
Surr, R.K., Montgomery, A.A, & Mueller, H.G. (1985). Effect of amplification on tinnitus among new hearing aid users. Ear Hear, 6(2), 71-5.
Sweetow, R.W., & Sabes, J.H. (2010). Effects of acoustical stimuli delivered through hearing aids on tinnitus. J Am Acad Audiol, 21(7), 461-473.
Teismann, H., Okamoto, H., & Pantev, C. (2011). Short and intense tailor-made notched music training against tinnitus: The tinnitus frequency matters. PLoS ONE, 6(9). e24685. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0024685
Tunkel, D.E., Bauer, C.A., Sun, G.H., Rosenfeld, R.M., Chadrasekhar, SS., Cunningham, E.R….Whamond, E.J. (2014). Clinical practice guideline: tinnitus. Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, 151(2S), S1-S40. doi: 10.1177/0194599814545325
Turner, J.S. (1990). Auditory dysfunction: tinnitus. In H.K. Walker, W.D. Hall, & J.W. Hurst (Eds.), Clinical methods: The history, physical, and laboratory examinations. Boston: Butterworths.
United States Department of Affairs (n.d.). Retrieved Sept 13, 2016
Vernon, J. (1976). The use of masking for relief of tinnitus. In H. Silverstein & H. Norrell (Eds.), Neurological Surgery of the Ear: Volume II (104-108). Birmingham: Aesculapius Publishing.
Wolf, V. (2016). How to use primax tinnitus therapy options. Signia Whitepaper.
Wunderlich, R., Lau, P., Stein, A., Engell, A., Wollbrink, A., Rudack, C., & Pantey, C. (2015, September). Impact of spectral notch width on neurophysiological plasticity and clinical effectiveness of the tailor-made notched music training. PLoS ONE, 10(9).

Other research

BACK TO TOP

Through our work, we have also collected data on the spread of people's tonal tinnitus frequencies. The charts below update automatically as we gather more data daily.

As you can see below, there is a clear multi-modal distribution of dominant frequency prevalence among tinnitus sufferers, with 2 most popular peaks of tinnitus frequency at around 7 and 11.5 kHz.

The lower line provides more granularity, albeit at some cost to accuracy, by grouping people's tinnitus frequency to the nearest 750 Hz. Here we can see the 7 kHz peak seems to actually be a bimodal distribution with peaks close to 6.5 and 8 kHz. However, note the errors bars, marking the margin of error for this sample size (assuming 10% of the planet's population suffering some level of tinnitus accounts for the total 'population').

The chart below shows tinnitus laterality; that is, whether people's tinnitus presents in left, right or both ears. As expected, the majority of tinnitus cases are bilateral.

The chart below shows frequency groupings of tinnitus separately for left, right and bilateral tinnitus sufferers. Note that in the combined results, the prevalence of people with left-sided unilateral tinnitus around 9.5 kHz seems to be masking an underlying bilateral distribution in the frequencies experienced by bilateral tinnitus sufferers.

We will post more of our data here as we collect and process it. Last update: