Hamilton, Caroline and D'Arcy, Shona and Pearlmutter, Barak A. and Crispino, Gloria and Lalor, Edmund C. and Conlon, Brendan J. (2016) An Investigation of Feasibility and Safety of Bi‐Modal Stimulation for the Treatment of Tinnitus: An Open‐Label Pilot Study. Neuromodulation: Technology at the Neural Interface, 19 (8). pp. 832-837. ISSN 1094-7159

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Abstract

Objectives: Tinnitus is the perception of sound in the absence of an external auditory stimulus. It is widely believed that tinnitus, in patients with associated hearing loss, is a neurological phenomenon primarily affecting the central auditory structures. However, there is growing evidence for the involvement of the somatosensory system in this form of tinnitus. For this reason it has been suggested that the condition may be amenable to bi‐modal stimulation of the auditory and somatosensory systems. We conducted a pilot study to investigate the feasibility and safety of a device that delivers simultaneous auditory and somatosensory stimulation to treat the symptoms of chronic tinnitus. Methods: A cohort of 54 patients used the stimulation device for 10 weeks. Auditory stimulation was delivered via headphones and somatosensory stimulation was delivered via electrical stimulation of the tongue. Patient usage, logged by the device, was used to classify patients as compliant or noncompliant. Safety was assessed by reported adverse events and changes in tinnitus outcome measures. Response to treatment was assessed using tinnitus outcome measures: Minimum Masking Level (MML), Tinnitus Loudness Matching (TLM), and Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI). Results: The device was well tolerated by patients and no adverse events or serious difficulties using the device were reported. Overall, 68% of patients met the defined compliance threshold. Compliant patients (N = 30) demonstrated statistically significant improvements in mean outcome measures after 10 weeks of treatment: THI (−11.7 pts, p < 0.001), TLM (−7.5dB, p < 0.001), and MML (−9.7dB, p < 0.001). The noncompliant group (N = 14) demonstrated no statistical improvements. Conclusion: This study demonstrates the feasibility and safety of a new bi‐modal stimulation device and supports the potential efficacy of this new treatment for tinnitus.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution‐NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.
Keywords:	Auditory somatosensory stimulation; neuromodulation; tinnitus;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Science and Engineering > Computer Science Faculty of Science and Engineering > Research Institutes > Hamilton Institute
Item ID:	10229
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.1111/ner.12452
Depositing User:	Barak Pearlmutter
Date Deposited:	19 Nov 2018 16:06
Journal or Publication Title:	Neuromodulation: Technology at the Neural Interface
Publisher:	Wiley
Refereed:	Yes
Funders:	Irish Research Council (IRC)
URI:	https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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