Advances over the past decade mean new hope to tinnitus sufferers. For years little was known about the causes of this persistent, annoying sound in the ears. Most experts believed it was primarily due to ear damage. Maskers, devices that emit white or wide-band noise (like an air conditioner), were the only treatment available to sufferers.
Studies done over the past decade have shown most tinnitus to be a conditioned response to electrical activity occurring naturally in every living cell in the ear. Research has given rise to new approaches to treatment. In the early 1990s, Pawel Jastreboff of the University Of Maryland in Baltimore, along with Jonathan Hazell of Great Britain, developed Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT). TRT involves a combination of wearable noise-generating devices and counselling to facilitate adjustment to the condition. Jack Vernon of the University Of Oregon in Portland refined the noise-generating devices. Other treatments include medications such as tranquillizers and antidepressants to correct sleep disturbances and reduces, and stress management, separately or in combination with TRT. "There's still a lack of awareness about where to go for treatment, and the types of treatment available. But more ear, nose and throat specialists are being retrained, and more clinics are opening," says Elizabeth Eayrs of the Tinnitus Association Of Canada.
Between 0.5 and four per cent of Canadians suffer from persistent tinnitus. The most common type, which can only be heard by the sufferer is caused by loud noise, stress and head injury. For further information contact the Tinnitus Association Of Canada at 23 Ellis Park Road, Toronto, M6S 2V4.
C1998 Peter D.A. Warwick
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