The state of the art of sound therapy for subjective tinnitus in adults

Abstract

Background: Sound therapy is a clinically common method of tinnitus management. Various forms of sound therapy have been developed, but there are controversies regarding the selection criteria and the efficacy of different forms of sound therapy in the clinic. Our goal was to review the types and forms of sound therapy and our understanding of how the different characteristics of tinnitus patients influence their curative effects so as to provide a reference for personalized choice of tinnitus sound therapy. Method: Using an established methodological framework, a search of six databases including PubMed identified 43 records that met our inclusion criteria. The search strategy used the following key words: tinnitus AND (acoustic OR sound OR music) AND (treatment OR therapy OR management OR intervention OR measure). Results: There are various forms of sound therapy, and most of them show positive therapeutic effects. The effect of customized sound therapy is generally better than that of non-customized sound therapy, and patients with more severe initial tinnitus respond better to sound therapy. Conclusion: Sound therapy can effectively suppress tinnitus, at least in some patients. However, there is a lack of randomized controlled trials to identify effective management strategies. Further studies are needed to identify the most effective form of sound therapy for individualized therapy, and large, multicenter, long-term follow-up studies are still needed in order to develop more effective and targeted sound-therapy protocols. In addition, it is necessary to analyze the characteristics of individual tinnitus patients and to unify the assessment criteria of tinnitus.

Investigation of the Effectiveness of Internet-Based Smart Phone Sound Therapy in Tinnitus Treatment

“…9 Maskeleme amacıyla geniş bant beyaz gürültü, dar bant gürültüler, müzik sesleri, doğa sesleri, kişiselleştirilmiş sesler, hafif ses düzeyinden tinnitusu tamamen baskılayan total maskelemeye kadar değişebilen ses şiddetlerinde uygulanmaktadırlar. 18,19 Tüm bu ses türleri için başarılı sonuçlar verilmiş olup, tedavi amacıyla en sık kullanılanlarından biri geniş bant beyaz gürültüdür. 20 Bu sebeple çalışmamızda, tinnitus maskeleme tedavisi amacıyla internetten ücretsiz olarak ulaşılabilen ve akıllı telefonlara yüklenebilen geniş bant beyaz gürültü uygulaması kullandık.…”

Unification of Treatments and Interventions for Tinnitus Patients (UNITI): a study protocol for a multi-center randomized clinical trial

“…Currently, there is no general treatment respectively a cure for tinnitus existent. Available treatment approaches cover a broad spectrum of interventions from pharmacology [ 6 ], neurostimulation [ 11 ], cochlear implants [ 12 ] to different sound therapies [ 13 , 14 ] or hearing aids [ 15 , 16 ]. While the European guidelines for tinnitus [ 17 ] give a weak recommendation for the application of amplification devices in tinnitus patients with hearing loss, there is currently no explicit recommendation for pharmacological interventions or neurostimulation [ 17 ].…”

Efficacy of sound therapy interventions for tinnitus management

“…However, no specific treatments or interventions have yet been proven to offer a completely satisfactory solution. [ 7 – 9 ]…”

“…Because of its noninvasiveness and simplicity, sound therapy is readily accepted by patients and widely used in clinical practice. [ 7 ] However, reports of its efficacy have been mixed.…”