Towards a unification of treatments and interventions for tinnitus patients: The EU research and innovation action UNITI

Schlee, Winfried; Schoisswohl, Stefan; Staudinger, Susanne; Schiller, Axel; Lehner, Astrid; Langguth, Berthold; Schecklmann, Martin; Simões, Jorge; Neff, Patrick; Marcrum, Steven C.; Spiliopoulou, Myra; Niemann, Uli; Schleicher, Miro; Unnikrishnan, Vishnu; Puga, Clara; Mulansky, Lena; Pryss, Ruediger; Vogel, Carsten; Allgaier, Johannes; Giannopoulou, Efi; Birki, Katalin; Liakou, Klairi; Cima, Rilana; Vlaeyen, Johan W. S.; Verhaert, Nicolas; Ranson, Saskia; Mazurek, Birgit; Brüeggemann, Petra; Boecking, Benjamin; Amarjargal, Nyamaa; Specht, Sandy; Stege, A.; Hummel, Michael; Rose, Matthias; Oppel, Kevin; Dettling-Papargyris, Juliane; Lopez-Escamez, José A.; Amanat, Sana; Gallego‐Martinez, Alvaro; Escalera‐Balsera, Alba; Espinosa-Sánchez, Juan Manuel; García‐Valdecasas, Juan Carlos; Mata-Ferron, Maria; Martin-Lagos, Juan; Martínez-Martínez, María; Locatelli, Nicolás Müller; Pérez-Carpena, Patricia; Alcazar-Beltran, Jorge; Hidalgo-Lopez, Leyre; Vellidou, Eleftheria; Sarafidis, Michail; Katrakazas, Panagiotis; Kostaridou, Vassileia; Koutsouris, Dimitris; Manta, Rano; Paraskevopoulos, Evangelos; Haritou, Maria; Elgoyhen, Ana Belén; Goedhart, Hazel; Koller, Michael; Shekhawat, Giriraj Singh; Crump, Holger; Hannemann, Ronny; Holfelder, Marc; Oberholzer, Timon; Vontas, Apóstolos; Trochidis, Ilias; Moumtzi, Vasiliki; Cederroth, Christopher R.; Koloutsou, Konstantina; Spanoudakis, George; Basdekis, Ioannis; Gallus, Silvano; Lugo, Alessandra; Stival, Chiara; Borroni, Elisa; Markatos, Nikolaos; Bibas, Athanasios; Kikidis, Dimitris

doi:10.1016/bs.pbr.2020.12.005

Cited by 34 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…In addition, different applications of simultaneous multimodal stimulation have shown promising results e.g., combination of sound and somatosensory stimulation (Marks et al, 2018;Conlon et al, 2020). Another example of combination of approaches is the ongoing UNITI clinical trial (Schlee et al, 2021), where different interventions, including CBT, structured counseling, sound therapy, and hearing aids will be investigated in a randomized controlled trial for their effects when delivered individually and in combination with one another.…”

Section: Combination Of Interventionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The tinnitus research field has benefited from multidisciplinary consortia such as the Tinnitus Research Initiative (TRI) , the TINnitus research NETwork (TINNET, 2014), the European School on Interdisciplinary Tinnitus Research (ESIT) (Schlee et al, 2018), the Tinnitus Genetic and Environmental Risks (TIGER, 2019), the TINnitus -Assessment, Causes and Treatments (TIN- ACT, 2017), and the Unification of Treatments and Interventions for Tinnitus Patients (Schlee et al, 2021). Despite all the efforts by these welcomed initiatives, tinnitus still remains an under-researched field.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Multidisciplinary Tinnitus Research: Challenges and Future Directions From the Perspective of Early Stage Researchers

Simões

Daoud

Shabbir

et al. 2021

Front. Aging Neurosci.

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Tinnitus can be a burdensome condition on both individual and societal levels. Many aspects of this condition remain elusive, including its underlying mechanisms, ultimately hindering the development of a cure. Interdisciplinary approaches are required to overcome long-established research challenges. This review summarizes current knowledge in various tinnitus-relevant research fields including tinnitus generating mechanisms, heterogeneity, epidemiology, assessment, and treatment development, in an effort to highlight the main challenges and provide suggestions for future research to overcome them. Four common themes across different areas were identified as future research direction: (1) Further establishment of multicenter and multidisciplinary collaborations; (2) Systematic reviews and syntheses of existing knowledge; (3) Standardization of research methods including tinnitus assessment, data acquisition, and data analysis protocols; (4) The design of studies with large sample sizes and the creation of large tinnitus-specific databases that would allow in-depth exploration of tinnitus heterogeneity.

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Section: Combination Of Interventionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multidisciplinary Tinnitus Research: Challenges and Future Directions From the Perspective of Early Stage Researchers

Simões

Daoud

Shabbir

et al. 2021

Front. Aging Neurosci.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…The UNITI-RCT aims at making a signi cant contribution to the personalization of tinnitus treatments by means of the validation of a speci c DSS. The system will be developed during the UNITI-project [38], in order to support clinicians in choosing the optimal treatment based on an individual patient`s pro le [39]. Such a system and its underlying computational model has not only the potential to signi cantly contribute to our understanding of the tinnitus pathology, but also improve clinical practice and the way we are trying to treat tinnitus.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The blood samples are sent to the Center for Genomics and Oncological Research (GENyO), Universidad de Granada (Granada, Spain) and the plasma samples to the Karolinska Institutet (Stockholm, Sweden) for further analysis of genetic parameters and plasma proteins respectively. Both laboratories are part of the UNITI consortium [38]. Storage, shipping and analysis of participants biological samples are done according to the EU GDPR (2016/679) as well as country speci c legislations.…”

Section: Blood Samplesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Unification of treatments and interventions for tinnitus patients (UNITI): a study protocol for a multi-center randomized clinical trial

Schoisswohl

Langguth

Schecklmann

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Background Tinnitus represents a relatively common condition in the global population accompanied by various comorbidities and severe burden in many cases. Nevertheless, there is currently no general treatment or cure, presumable due to the heterogeneity of tinnitus with its wide variety of etiologies and tinnitus phenotypes. Hence, most treatment studies merely demonstrated improvement in a subgroup of tinnitus patients. The majority of studies are characterized by small sample sizes, unstandardized treatments and assessments or applications of intervention targeting only a single organ level. Combinatory treatment approaches, potentially targeting multiple systems as well as treatment personalization might provide remedy and enhance treatment responses. The aim of the present study is to systematically examine established tinnitus therapies both alone and in combination in a large sample of tinnitus patients. Further it wants to provide the basis for personalized treatment approaches by evaluating a specific decision support system developed as part of an EU-funded collaborative project (Unification of treatments and interventions for tinnitus patients; UNITI-project). Methods/ Study design: This is a multi-center parallel-arm randomized clinical trial conducted at five different clinical sites over the EU. The effect of four different tinnitus therapy approaches (sound therapy, structured counselling, hearing aids, cognitive behavioral therapy) applied over a time period of 12 weeks as a single or rather a combinatory treatment in a total number of 500 chronic tinnitus patients will be investigated. Assessments and interventions are harmonized over the involved clinical sites. The primary outcome measure focuses on the domain tinnitus distress assessed via the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory. Discussion Results and conclusions from the current study might not only provide an essential contribution to combinatory and personalized treatment approaches in tinnitus but could also provide more profound insights in the heterogeneity of tinnitus, representing an important step towards a cure for tinnitus. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT04663828. Registered on 11. December 2020

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Using Big Data to Develop a Clinical Decision Support System for Tinnitus Treatment

Schlee

Langguth

Pryss

et al. 2021

The Behavioral Neuroscience of Tinnitus

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Towards a unification of treatments and interventions for tinnitus patients: The EU research and innovation action UNITI

Cited by 34 publications

References 12 publications

Multidisciplinary Tinnitus Research: Challenges and Future Directions From the Perspective of Early Stage Researchers

Multidisciplinary Tinnitus Research: Challenges and Future Directions From the Perspective of Early Stage Researchers

Unification of treatments and interventions for tinnitus patients (UNITI): a study protocol for a multi-center randomized clinical trial

Using Big Data to Develop a Clinical Decision Support System for Tinnitus Treatment

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