It is a fact that approximately 40 million people in the U.S. suffer from tinnitus. Twenty five per cent of those suffer severe or chronic tinnitus. Many scientific studies have been carried out to assess the competence of varied types of tinnitus therapy.
Professionals in the field now talk about tinnitus management rather than tinnitus therapy per se. There are five main types of tinnitus therapy and under a tinnitus management program any one or more of these therapies might be used. Psychological Therapy, Hypnotherapy, Medication Therapy, Acoustic Therapy and Holistic Therapy are the main types.
Acoustic Therapy seems to be the most popular type of treatment used by the medical scientific group. The general thrust of this approach is to use exterior sound to mask or control the tinnitus. Sound generators are used in the ear or outside the ear to produce sounds that compete with the perceived tinnitus sound whether it be ringing in the ear, buzzing ears, hissing ears or thumping noises in the ear. Other devices include the use of tapes under the pillows of sufferers, sound pillows, radios and hearing aids. Groups of tinnitus patients have been studied and the results for this type of tinnitus therapy is very positive but none has reported a cure.
Psychological Therapy is also very much favoured by the medical scientific group as an integral part of a tinnitus management program. This method too, has had positive results with patients reporting that their insomnia had decreased and their anxiety and depression symptoms had lessened.
Hypnotherapy has been proved to be effective in managing tinnitus, providing relief and lessening the perceived noise or noises heard by the patient.
For details of how Medication Therapy helps tinnitus patients see my article entitled What Medications Are Available For Tinnitus Therapy?
Holistic Therapy may include aspects of some or all of the other therapies and does in fact constitute a tinnitus management program. While it is possible to cure some patients using this approach holistic therapy is regarded by some experts as the best way to minimise the debilitating effects of tinnitus.
By Gina A Williams
