starrygaze
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Interview: Ears ringing? Listen up
By CHRISTINE DELL'AMORE
WASHINGTON, Oct. 20 (UPI) -- Whistling, hissing, buzzing, chirping -- sufferers of tinnitus often have a front-row seat to an unwelcome orchestra of sounds. The condition affects more than 50 million Americans, and 12 million of them have severe enough cases to seek medical attention, according to the American Tinnitus Association.
The cacophony of noise a person hears is not real, but the perceived sound can be enough to dramatically lower quality of life, said Don Caspary, a professor of pharmacology at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Ill. United Press International was all ears as Caspary, also a tinnitus researcher, talked about the latest treatments and research.
Q. Describe tinnitus -- what is it like?
A. It's very variable. Some people have buzzing, or hear a pure tone. It can be high or low frequency, or more pulsatile, and it can come and go. Pure tone tinnitus sounds like if you leave your phone off your hook. Single frequency (sounds like) playing a single note on an instrument.
Q. Who does it normally affect?
A. It covers a lot of different ages. There is a peak that seems to happen in aging, about 50 to 60. In very old ages it goes back down a little. It's important to consider some people have tinnitus and live with it every day, and it doesn't bother them. For others, it affects their daily lives tremendously -- it affects their sleeping and adds a stress component.
It's the pairing of your stress to the sound that makes it become real aversive ... If you think you have a brain tumor when you have the sound, and the sound becomes ominous, it becomes a real stressor and interferes with your life.
Q. Does it come concurrently with other diseases?
A. In general, people who have tinnitus have some kind of hearing loss. It starts with some damage to inner ear, (possibly from) noise exposure. It's very common in war veterans. (It can also come from) cumulative work environment noise or a sudden explosion. There's (short-term) tinnitus after a rock concert -- it traumatizes the inner ear, until it eventually goes back to normal. (Using a) Walkman and major noise exposure probably leads to a lot more tinnitus. This is not an obscure problem -- an awful lot of people have this.
Q. What's some new research being done?
A. There has been a huge increase in people working on tinnitus in the last few years. It's a priority of the NIH (National Institutes of Health), the American Tinnitus Association and the Tinnitus Research Consortium. We're making progress. One (area) is carefully defining what it is, knowing what is acoustic versus stress-related. We're developing (experiments with) animal models, which are occurring now with (testing) drugs. You can't ask an animal if they have tinnitus, (so the experiments are) still being refined.
Q. How do the drugs work?
A. The drugs are related to neurotransmitters. The drug tries to put back the inhibition that appears to be lost ... the input to the brain is damaged, and the brain tries to respond to this loss of input. Basically, 90 percent of people who have tinnitus have hearing loss. That means the hairs in the inner ears are damaged in some way, and this alters the input to brain. The brain says, "Hmm, I have to change something," and it results in a hyperactivity. It's a phantom sound.
Q. Any new treatments?
A. There is no gold standard. Behavioral therapy is the (closest to a) gold standard, but it's unproven from a scientific point of view. A combination of behavioral and pharmaceuticals (probably works best). We can treat the stress reaction sometimes with anti-depressants.
There's also tinnitus-retraining therapy, which basically trains you to cope with tinnitus -- it desensitizes you. There's counseling involved, (as well as) sound acoustic therapy -- it trains you to listen to sound. It's pretty effective. (Sound therapies include both wearable, hearing aid-like devices, and non-wearable devices, such as table-top sound machines or even a whirring fan. Often, sound is used to completely or partially cover the tinnitus.) It's not scientifically proven; a lot of people doing it, and it seems to get good results, but a real clinical trial has yet to be done.
Q. Will the incidence continue to go up?
A. (Yes.) In epidemiological studies, up to 15 percent of the population have tinnitus, (which includes) 27 percent of males and 15 percent of females, both over the age of 45. Two things will contribute to an increase: the aging population, and even though the industrial world is careful about ear protection, we're increasing exposure to loud sounds and continuous noise. Kids' (MP3 players) and urbanized society will contribute to the increase.
For more information:
American Tinnitus Association | Home | Help For Ringing In The Ears
By CHRISTINE DELL'AMORE
WASHINGTON, Oct. 20 (UPI) -- Whistling, hissing, buzzing, chirping -- sufferers of tinnitus often have a front-row seat to an unwelcome orchestra of sounds. The condition affects more than 50 million Americans, and 12 million of them have severe enough cases to seek medical attention, according to the American Tinnitus Association.
The cacophony of noise a person hears is not real, but the perceived sound can be enough to dramatically lower quality of life, said Don Caspary, a professor of pharmacology at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Ill. United Press International was all ears as Caspary, also a tinnitus researcher, talked about the latest treatments and research.
Q. Describe tinnitus -- what is it like?
A. It's very variable. Some people have buzzing, or hear a pure tone. It can be high or low frequency, or more pulsatile, and it can come and go. Pure tone tinnitus sounds like if you leave your phone off your hook. Single frequency (sounds like) playing a single note on an instrument.
Q. Who does it normally affect?
A. It covers a lot of different ages. There is a peak that seems to happen in aging, about 50 to 60. In very old ages it goes back down a little. It's important to consider some people have tinnitus and live with it every day, and it doesn't bother them. For others, it affects their daily lives tremendously -- it affects their sleeping and adds a stress component.
It's the pairing of your stress to the sound that makes it become real aversive ... If you think you have a brain tumor when you have the sound, and the sound becomes ominous, it becomes a real stressor and interferes with your life.
Q. Does it come concurrently with other diseases?
A. In general, people who have tinnitus have some kind of hearing loss. It starts with some damage to inner ear, (possibly from) noise exposure. It's very common in war veterans. (It can also come from) cumulative work environment noise or a sudden explosion. There's (short-term) tinnitus after a rock concert -- it traumatizes the inner ear, until it eventually goes back to normal. (Using a) Walkman and major noise exposure probably leads to a lot more tinnitus. This is not an obscure problem -- an awful lot of people have this.
Q. What's some new research being done?
A. There has been a huge increase in people working on tinnitus in the last few years. It's a priority of the NIH (National Institutes of Health), the American Tinnitus Association and the Tinnitus Research Consortium. We're making progress. One (area) is carefully defining what it is, knowing what is acoustic versus stress-related. We're developing (experiments with) animal models, which are occurring now with (testing) drugs. You can't ask an animal if they have tinnitus, (so the experiments are) still being refined.
Q. How do the drugs work?
A. The drugs are related to neurotransmitters. The drug tries to put back the inhibition that appears to be lost ... the input to the brain is damaged, and the brain tries to respond to this loss of input. Basically, 90 percent of people who have tinnitus have hearing loss. That means the hairs in the inner ears are damaged in some way, and this alters the input to brain. The brain says, "Hmm, I have to change something," and it results in a hyperactivity. It's a phantom sound.
Q. Any new treatments?
A. There is no gold standard. Behavioral therapy is the (closest to a) gold standard, but it's unproven from a scientific point of view. A combination of behavioral and pharmaceuticals (probably works best). We can treat the stress reaction sometimes with anti-depressants.
There's also tinnitus-retraining therapy, which basically trains you to cope with tinnitus -- it desensitizes you. There's counseling involved, (as well as) sound acoustic therapy -- it trains you to listen to sound. It's pretty effective. (Sound therapies include both wearable, hearing aid-like devices, and non-wearable devices, such as table-top sound machines or even a whirring fan. Often, sound is used to completely or partially cover the tinnitus.) It's not scientifically proven; a lot of people doing it, and it seems to get good results, but a real clinical trial has yet to be done.
Q. Will the incidence continue to go up?
A. (Yes.) In epidemiological studies, up to 15 percent of the population have tinnitus, (which includes) 27 percent of males and 15 percent of females, both over the age of 45. Two things will contribute to an increase: the aging population, and even though the industrial world is careful about ear protection, we're increasing exposure to loud sounds and continuous noise. Kids' (MP3 players) and urbanized society will contribute to the increase.
For more information:
American Tinnitus Association | Home | Help For Ringing In The Ears
What's up with that?? I think it's time for you to find another audi! 
