A Comparative Study of Treatment Outcomes of Music Therapy, Tinnitus Maskers and Pharmacotherpy in Chronic Subjective Tinnitus

Abstract

Tinnitus represents one of the most common and distressing otologic problems, and it causes various somatic and psychological disorders that interfere with the quality of life. This study aimed to compare the outcome of music therapy, tinnitus maskers and pharmacotherapy on patients with chronic tinnitus, to observe and analyse the etiological factors of tinnitus and to find out whether music can be used as an active listening mode by which tinnitus perception can be decreased. This was a comparative longitudinal study involving 90 patients with chronic tinnitus who were randomly assigned to 3 groups of 30 each: Group A (Music therapy), Group B (Pharmacotherapy) and Group C (Tinnitus masker). After a detailed clinical history and examination, Tinnitus Handicap Inventory and Visual Analogue Scores were recorded both prior to and following therapy, and patient were followed up monthly up to 2 months. There is a significant difference in the mean THI score (p = 0.002) and mean VAS(p = 0.0006) at 2 months follow up in patients treated with Music therapy and patients had a satisfactory outcome after music therapy and did not require any further treatment. Patients in pharmacotherapy and hearing aid group had a good clinical improvement but mean THI and mean VAS score was not statically significant. It was also noticed that loud noise exposure and hypertension were main etiological factors in 37.77% and 26% of patients respectively. Music therapy appears to be an effective and cost-efficient mode of therapy for chronic tinnitus and could be suitable for widespread implementation for patients with tinnitus of varying severity. Pharmacotherapy and hearing aid application in the treatment of tinnitus has good outcome in our study but requires long term treatment and follow up.

The effect of music therapy on tinnitus: A systematic review

“…For THI, the mean difference score between the pre-and post-treatment was available for thirteen trials. [13,15,16,18,[23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31] A random-effect model was used to analyze the data (I 2 = 73.8% > 50%, P = .000 < .1). Compared with before treatment, music therapy significantly reduces the THI score (SMD = −0.88, 95%CI −1.15 to −0.6, P = .000 < .001) (Fig.…”

“…Six trials recorded the mean difference score between the pre-and post-treatment. [13,[26][27][28]30] A fixed-effect model was used to analyze the data (I 2 = 20.4% < 50%, P = .285 > .1). We found that music therapy significantly decreases the visual analog scale-loudness score (SMD = −0.86, 95%CI −1.08 to −0.64, P = .003 < .05) (Fig.…”

“…1 ). [ 13 – 15 ] However, the different outcome of these therapies leads to the uncertainty of music therapy in treating tinnitus. Although some articles conducted clinical experiments on tinnitus patients with different music therapies, the results did not show the effectiveness and advantages of music therapy.…”

The Role of Clonazepam on the Control and Management of Tinnitus: A Cross-over randomized study, Damascus, Syria.

“…[5] [21,22] [ [23][24][25][26][27][28] surgical procedures, behavioral audio therapy, tinnitus masking devices, transcranial magnetic stimulation, and psychotherapy were also suggested. [1,3,16,19,29] The aim of this study is to investigate the use of clonazepam as an effective treatment for idiopathic tinnitus or to control the severity of its impact on patients' quality of life.…”