Restoration of Deafferentation Reduces Tinnitus, Anxiety, and Depression: A Retrospective Study on Cochlear Implant Patients

Abstract

Patients with profound bilateral deafness (BD) are prone to suffering from tinnitus, which further leads to psychological comorbidities and makes it more difficult for patients to communicate with people. This study was aimed at investigating the effect of cochlear implants (CIs) on tinnitus distress and psychological comorbidities in patients with profound BD. This multicenter retrospective study reviewed 51 patients with severe postlingual BD who underwent cochlear implantation; 49 patients underwent unilateral cochlear implantation, and 2 patients underwent bilateral cochlear implantation. The patients were asked to complete all the questionnaires, including the tinnitus handicap inventory (THI), the visual analog scale (VAS) score, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale Questionnaire (HADS), the Categories of Auditory Performance (CAP), and the Speech Intelligibility Rating (SIR), at least 4 months after implantation when the CI was on or off, in approximately May-June 2019. In our study, 94% (48/51) of BD patients suffered from tinnitus before CI, and 77% (37/48) of them suffered from bilateral tinnitus. In addition, 50.9% (26/51) of the CI patients were suffering from anxiety, 52.9% (27/51) of them were suffering from depression ( score ≥ 8 ), and 66.7% (34/51) (27/51) of them were suffering from anxiety or depression. Cochlear implantation could reduce tinnitus more obviously when the CI was on than when the CI was off. Cochlear implantation also reduced anxiety/depression severity. There were significantly positive correlations between tinnitus severity and anxiety/depression severity before and after surgery. Moreover, hearing improvement is positively correlated with reduction level of tinnitus, the better hearing, and the lesser severity of tinnitus. Thus, along with effective restoration of deafferentation, cochlear implantation shows positive therapeutic effects on tinnitus and psychological comorbidities, providing a reference for future clinical and research work.

Effects of auditory rehabilitation with cochlear implant on tinnitus prevalence and distress, health-related quality of life, subjective hearing and psychological comorbidities: Comparative analysis of patients with asymmetric hearing loss (AHL), double-sided (bilateral) deafness (DSD), and single-sided (unilateral) deafness (SSD)

“…More recent studies have delivered information on the prevalence of tinnitus among groups of patients with defined types of deafness. In a sample of 51 DSD patients, 94.1% of CI candidates had preoperative tinnitus ( 46 ). In other studies, the prevalence of tinnitus in DSD patients was 42% ( 21 ) and 55.8% ( 47 ), which is comparable to our results.…”

Associations between sleep disorders and anxiety in patients with tinnitus: A cross-sectional study

“…The severity of tinnitus is highly associated with depression, anxiety and neuroticism, emphasizing the importance of psychological factors in tinnitus management (Strumila et al, 2017). In patients with profound bilateral deafness, cochlear implants reduce the severity of anxiety in addition to tinnitus (Yang et al, 2021). A study in Swedish indicated that the decrease in depression symptoms is associated with a reduction in tinnitus prevalence and severity (Hebert et al, 2012).…”

A Importância Do Implante Coclear Em Pacientes Com Surdez Unilateral

“…Segundo o ensaio clínico feito por Peters et al (20) mostrou que 3 dos pacientes estudados apresentaram desaparecimento no zumbido, assim melhorando a qualidade de vida dos pacientes. Yang et al (21) também relata em seu estudo que o IC unilateral apresentou efeitos terapêuticos sobre o zumbido assim melhorando os aspectos psicológicos e de zumbido dos pacientes.…”