Polysomnography Applied to Patients with Tinnitus: A Review

Abstract

Introduction Tinnitus has been defined as an “auditory phantom perception,” meaning that tinnitus results from an abnormal activity within the nervous system, in the absence of any internal or external acoustic stimulation. About 10 to 15% of the adult population is affected by tinnitus, and a relevant percentage of tinnitus sufferers experience symptoms severe enough to significantly affect quality of life, including sleep disturbances, work impairment, and, in some cases, psychiatric distress. The self-rated complaints about tinnitus focus on emotional distress, auditory perceptual difficulties, and sleep disturbances. Objectives To evaluate the works that show sleep disorders in patients with tinnitus, and sleep disorders assessed by polysomnography. Data Synthesis We found four studies with polysomnography to assess sleep disorders in patients with tinnitus. The first study evaluated 80 patients who were military personnel without major psychiatric disturbances, and their tinnitus was associated with noise-induced permanent hearing. The second study was a prospective, case-control, nonrandomized study of 18 patients affected by chronic tinnitus who were compared with a homogeneous control group consisting of 15 healthy subjects. The last work evaluated questionnaires mailed to patients before their initial appointment at the Oregon Health Sciences University Tinnitus Clinic between 1994 and 1997. These questionnaires requested information pertaining to insomnia, tinnitus severity, and loudness. Follow-up questionnaires were mailed to 350 patients 1 to 4 years (mean 5 ± 2.3 years) after their initial appointment at the clinic. Conclusion There are few studies with polysomnography for the evaluation of patients with sleep disorders caused by tinnitus. This shows the need for more studies on this subject.

Cross-sectional and Longitudinal Associations Between Tinnitus and Mental Health in a Population-Based Sample of Middle-aged and Elderly Persons

“…The association of tinnitus with psychopathology is in line with previous cross-sectional studies reporting tinnitus to be associated with depressive and anxiety symptoms and poorer sleep quality . We found that the effect size of the association for bothersome tinnitus over nonbothersome tinnitus was nearly 3 times as large for depressive and anxiety symptoms and twice as large for sleep quality compared with no tinnitus.…”

Relação entre zumbido e audiometria de altas frequências: revisão narrativa em revistas científicas brasileiras

“…O sintoma pode afetar a qualidade de vida, provocando distúrbios do sono, assim como, dificuldades sociais, de concentração, prejuízos no trabalho, percepção da fala e em alguns casos podem ocasionar desequilíbrio emocional ou problemas psiquiátricos (Almeida et al, 2009;Geocze et al, 2013;Moon et al, 2015;Sanchez et al, 2005;Teixeira et al, 2018). Ainda, segundo estudos recentes, a severidade do zumbido possui forte relação com sintomas de ansiedade e depressão, mesmo quando não provocam incômodo (Pesarico et al, 2022;Strumila et al, 2017).…”

REM Sleep Impairment May Underlie Sleep-Driven Modulations of Tinnitus in Sleep Intermittent Tinnitus Subjects: A Controlled Study

“…Several studies have also objectively analyzed the sleep of tinnitus patients through polysomnography (PSG) [ 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 ]. These studies converged on the fact that objective sleep is impacted in tinnitus patients [ 26 ].…”