BackgroundThere are a large number of assessment tools for tinnitus, with little consensus on what it is important to measure and no preference for a minimum reporting standard. The item content of tinnitus assessment tools should seek to capture relevant impacts of tinnitus on everyday life, but no-one has yet synthesised information about the range of tinnitus complaints. This review is thus the first comprehensive and authoritative collection and synthesis of what adults with tinnitus and their significant others report as problems in their everyday lives caused by tinnitus.MethodsElectronic searches were conducted in PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, as well as grey literature sources to identify publications from January 1980 to June 2015 in which participants were enrolled because tinnitus was their primary complaint. A manual search of seven relevant journals updated the search to December 2017. Of the 3699 titles identified overall, 84 records (reporting 86 studies) met our inclusion criteria and were taken through to data collection. Coders collated generic and tinnitus-specific complaints reported by people with tinnitus. All relevant data items were then analyzed using an iterative approach to narrative synthesis to form domain groupings representing complaints of tinnitus, which were compared patients and significant others.ResultsFrom the 86 studies analyzed using data collected from 16,381 patients, 42 discrete complaints were identified spanning physical and psychological health, quality of life and negative attributes of the tinnitus sound. This diversity was not captured by any individual study alone. There was good convergence between complaints collected using open- and closed-format questions, with the exception of general moods and perceptual attributes of tinnitus (location, loudness, pitch and unpleasantness); reported only using closed questions. Just two studies addressed data from the perspective of significant others (n = 79), but there was substantial correspondence with the patient framework, especially regarding relationships and social life.ConclusionsOur findings contribute fundamental new knowledge and a unique resource that enables investigators to appreciate the broad impacts of tinnitus on an individual. Our findings can also be used to guide questions during diagnostic assessment, to evaluate existing tinnitus-specific HR-QoL questionnaires and develop new ones, where necessary.Trial RegistrationPROSPERO registration number: CRD42015020629. Protocol published in BMJ Open. 2016;6e009171.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12955-018-0888-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The positive findings give support for the use of cognitive behavioural therapy/meditation for chronic tinnitus sufferers.

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Rationale, aim and objective: Chronic tinnitus is a prevalent condition broadly managed using individualised sound-based interventions, individualised or group education, counselling, or cognitive therapies. In the UK, therapy is largely delivered by audiologists or hearing therapists and, where available, clinical psychologists and physicians. Changes in the structure of the health service necessitate ongoing evaluation to monitor equity and person-centeredness of care. The purpose of the current evaluation was to describe provision and explore diversities in the services provided for tinnitus patients across the four countries of the UK and consider these relative to current commissioning and clinical practice guidelines. Method: A 37 item questionnaire was devised and distributed via email and social media to reach audiology departments in the UK and 147 valid responses were acquired during the 3 month period of the evaluation. Results: The structure and provision of tinnitus services varies widely across the four countries of the United Kingdom in terms of which clinicians provide the services. Outside of England there was no report of clinical psychology or audiovestibular physician involvement in services. There is also variability in access to psychological therapy or support (little training in CBT in Scotland and none in Northern Ireland), self-help groups (little involvement but interest from clinicians) and devices (e.g., one quarter of departments do not currently offer combination hearing aid devices for tinnitus). Clinicians are increasingly using validated questionnaires to evaluate the effectiveness of tinnitus management in their departments. Conclusions: Training in and the provision of psychological support for tinnitus patients by audiologists is particularly a concern for Scotland and Northern Ireland and has implications for the person-centeredness of audiology services. Capacity and need for research in paediatric tinnitus, combination devices, non-ear level sound devices and audiologist-delivered psychological therapy, are noted.