and 5 of tinnitus, deafness and hyperacusis before and after therapy (3 months). Fig 3: Evolution of VAS for tinnitus in percentage. e subscale âAwarenessâ,was ...
Success rate of Tinnitus Retraining Therapy P.Lurquin,M.Debaty,MP Thill,P.Deliens, CHU St Pierre Bruxelles, Belgium
Fig 1 Global severity on a Visual Analog Scale between 0 and 5 of tinnitus, deafness and hyperacusis before and after therapy (3 months)
Fig 2: Evolution of VAS for tinnitus. The three subscales “Intensity”, “Impact on life” and “Annoyance” were rated before and after a three months trial IMPROVEMENT Patient’s percentage
2 criterias > 40 %
3 criterias > 40% 75%
4 criterias > 40% 40%
22%
Percentage of patients that experienced improvements equal or better than 40% in function of criterias (subscales “intensity”,” awareness”, “annoyance” and “impact on life”) Basic pillar of the TRT protocol are sound enrichment and directive counselling. Different types of patient can be treated with this approach including type tinnitus sufferer without hearing loss (type I), tinnitus sufferer with significant hearing loss (type II) or hyperacusic patient (type III). We present the results of more than 200 patients that fulfilled the TRT protocol and analyse the success rate for each category and the whole sample. Methods : We addressed two questionnaires: the Structured Interview (Jastreboff 2002) and the T.H.I. self-administered questionnaire (Newman & coll 1996) before treatment and after 3 months. The S.I. questionnaire includes four subscales: Awareness, Intensity of tinnitus, Impact on Life and Annoyance. Each patient received a therapeutic plan that includes for type I and III white noise generator fitting and for type II combiinstrument (white noise generator + amplification) on one or both ears. Each patient received during the firsts three months four counselling sessions explaining the Jastreboff model, functioning of auditory cortex, the role of the limbic system and the goal of white noise stimulation in order to decrease misconceptions and cognitive distortions
Fig 3: Evolution of VAS for tinnitus in percentage. The subscale “Awareness”,was rated before and after a three months trial
Fig 4: Evolution of THI questionnaire score. The evaluation was done at first day and after three months
Results : Benefits analysis shows improvements of more than 40% for 2 subscales by 75 % of the patients and for 3 subscales by 40 % of the patients. On the other hand the reduction of the handicap (THI global score) on the whole sample reached 36 % Fine analysis shows that each subscale presents an improvement as well for the S.I. than for the THI. Conclusion : The TRT protocol provides a good method for every tinnitus patient’s category
Fig 5: Evolution in three months of Tinnitus Handicap Inventory Subscales
