Acquired profound hearing loss: Mental health and other characteristics of a large sample

Abstract

The study investigated the mental health and other characteristics of people with acquired profound hearing loss (APHL) and contrasted this group with acquired hearing loss (AHL) in general. A survey was completed over the internet by 95 adults and by 27 people who had attended a one-week course of rehabilitation. The latter group completed questionnaires of anxiety and depression, post-traumatic stress, and hearing handicap. The survey covered a wide range of factors associated with the history of hearing loss and evaluated previous contacts with professional services. The data from the two samples were very similar and were combined. The results indicated the existence of sudden and progressive onset groups, reliance on lip-reading, a severe effect of tinnitus, and some support for the conclusion that the psychosocial impact was greater in APHL than in AHL. A subgroup of APHL was severely distressed and handicapped. Respondents valued medical and audiological services but there was little evidence that previous counselling and support had been helpful. Recommendations for rehabilitation are briefly discussed.

Judgment of musical emotions after cochlear implantation in adults with progressive deafness

“…The impairments we observed in musical emotion ratings were not accounted for by depressive disorders that often affect profoundly deaf subjects (Hallam et al, 2006; Garnefski and Kraaij, 2012). The STAI (Spielberger, 1983) and POMS (McNair et al, 1992) questionnaires revealed there to be no difference between CI and NH participants, which indicates that depression or anxiety disturbances did not interfere with judgments of musical emotion.…”

Conversation tactics in persons with normal hearing and hearing-impairment

“…All three of the most employed tactics focus on physical closeness to the speaker and observation of a speaker ' s face, expressions, gestures, or lips. However, there is greater emphasis on the lips in the severe group, consistent with the employment of speech reading by this group (Hallam et al, 2006).…”

Comparing health care use and related costs between groups with and without hearing impairment

“…Examples of psychological and social effects are depression, loneliness, and social isolation (Kramer et al, 2002;Nachtegaal et al, 2009b). Emotional functioning may be disturbed by distress and anxiety due to hearing impairment (Kramer et al, 2002;Tambs, 2004;Hallam et al, 2006;Nachtegaal et al, 2009b). Physiological reactions may also occur.…”

“…Given the elevated level of depressive symptoms, distress, or somatization in people with hearing impairment found in previous studies (Kramer et al, 2002;Tambs, 2004;Hallam et al, 2006;Nachtegaal et al, 2009b), and the relationship of these variables with higher levels of health care use (e.g. Grabe et al, 2009), it was expected that individuals with hearing impairment would have made more use of psychosocial care.…”