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Long-time drummer Greg Sullivan has significant hearing loss. To make matters worse, he's one of 50 million Americans with tinnitus, "My tinnitus is ringing in the ears. I have it in both ears. It's louder in the left ear than it is in the right ear."
He hopes a medicine called Gabapentin will put an end to the constant clamor. Dr. Jay Piccirillo says, "If Gabapentin is found to be useful, it will be the first drug that's been demonstrated to be useful for tinnitus itself."
Piccirillo is heading this unique study at Washington University in St. Louis, "We hope to enroll about 160 patients in the study." Sullivan would be number 53.
The doctors says what's unique is that Gabapentin is a drug normally used to treat seizures and phantom limb pain, "Phantom limb pain is when someone feels pain in a finger, say in a hand that's been lost, it's been amputated." Like phantom pain, doctors think for some, tinnitus may be a phantom sound, "It's a phantom sound being generated in the auditory cortex of the brain."
In a pilot study nine out of 20 patients found relief with the pills, "The reason for their tinnitus is some type of biochemical alteration of the brain whereas for patients who it's not working, perhaps it's the cochlea, the hair cells of the cochlea or some other reason."
Doctors hope to have results of the new study by the end of this year.
Treatments for tinnitus include behavioral modification and masking devices. Otherwise, doctors can only treat the consequences of the disorder, including a lack of sleep and anxiety.
By Dawn Mercer
He hopes a medicine called Gabapentin will put an end to the constant clamor. Dr. Jay Piccirillo says, "If Gabapentin is found to be useful, it will be the first drug that's been demonstrated to be useful for tinnitus itself."
Piccirillo is heading this unique study at Washington University in St. Louis, "We hope to enroll about 160 patients in the study." Sullivan would be number 53.
The doctors says what's unique is that Gabapentin is a drug normally used to treat seizures and phantom limb pain, "Phantom limb pain is when someone feels pain in a finger, say in a hand that's been lost, it's been amputated." Like phantom pain, doctors think for some, tinnitus may be a phantom sound, "It's a phantom sound being generated in the auditory cortex of the brain."
In a pilot study nine out of 20 patients found relief with the pills, "The reason for their tinnitus is some type of biochemical alteration of the brain whereas for patients who it's not working, perhaps it's the cochlea, the hair cells of the cochlea or some other reason."
Doctors hope to have results of the new study by the end of this year.
Treatments for tinnitus include behavioral modification and masking devices. Otherwise, doctors can only treat the consequences of the disorder, including a lack of sleep and anxiety.
By Dawn Mercer