Shore’s team developed a “bisensory” treatment consisting of an in-ear headphone and two externally attached electrodes that delivered a combination of acoustic and electric stimuli to reduce activity in the DCN. The level of stimulation was individualized to each person’s tinnitus. The study involved 99 people with somatic tinnitus, each of whom were given a prototype device for home treatment over the course of the study.
Participants in the experimental group underwent the procedure for 30 minutes daily for six weeks during the study’s first phase. Those in the control group also attached the electrodes near their ear and on their neck, but the electrical impulse was absent—they received a purely acoustic treatment. Because the electrical impulses were not perceptible, none of the participants knew who belonged to which group.
After a six-week break, which was the second phase of the study, the protocol shifted for phase three: each of the two groups received the opposite treatment for another six weeks. After the first phase, the tinnitus in the experimental group was already reduced significantly, and the treatment provided meaningful clinical benefits. The participants’ tinnitus was perceived as only half as loud on average after phase one. Even during the treatment break, the situation continued to improve. The effect lasted up to 36 weeks. “In my estimation, this is a very promising procedure,” Langguth says. Shore now wants to move the new method quickly through the approval process and then onto the market.
*Editor’s Note (7/14/23): This sentence was edited after posting to correct the description of the prevalence of severe tinnitus.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)
Anton Benz is a science journalist based in Magdeburg, Germany.
