Music therapy shows promise for tinnitus sufferers

An estimated 50 million Americans have or have had tinnitus, experts say.

PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE

Timothy Brown, a 55-year-old industrial electrician, didn’t pay much attention to the ringing in his ears he heard occasionally last winter. But, come March, when the high-pitched noise turned nonstop and showed no sign of going away, he suddenly could think of nothing else.

“[After] the first few days, I went to the family doctor thinking it was an ear infection,” he said. That was ruled out.

“It wasn’t a problem, but it lingered two or three weeks and then it became traumatic,” Brown said.

His sleep was disrupted; he could no longer tolerate the level of sound generated when his big family of siblings got together.

Traumatic is a word to which millions of people with the same symptoms — ringing or other noises in the ears not caused by external stimulation — can relate. What they suffer from is a sensation of various and sometimes indeterminate causes called “tinnitus.”

The American Tinnitus Association estimates 50 million Americans have or have had tinnitus. Of that number, some 12 million seek medical help, and 2 million of them are debilitated by it, experiencing family problems, job problems, sleep problems or even depression.

There is no known cure.

“It’s so hard to target a cure if we don’t know a cause,” says Craig Newman, who is section head and professor of audiology at the Head and Neck Institute at the Cleveland Clinic.

The American Tinnitus Association has a program called Road Map for a Cure. The association is trying to get scientists together to get a better understanding of the causes so they can find a cure, Newman said.

In the meantime, there are numerous treatments, each of which by itself or in combination with others provides relief for some segment of tinnitus sufferers.

One of the newest falls into the category of sound therapy. It is called neuromonics and it got federal clearance in January 2005 after becoming commercially available the previous year in Australia, where it was developed.

Other sound therapies seek to cover up the tinnitus with environmental sounds, broadband noise (it sounds like a shower), wind noise, even the ambient background noise that comes with the use of a hearing aid.

Neuromonics uses highly customized baroque and new age music — and during Phase 1 of two phases some broadband noise — to try to retrain the brain to ignore the tinnitus through a process called neuroplasticity.

“It’s the newest tool in our toolbox,” Newman said.

The Cleveland Clinic became one of the first five medical centers in the United States to train for and start using neuromonics two years ago after Newman and other top audiologists got a chance to preview and offer feedback on the treatment.

It is only after all underlying medical causes have been eliminated or treated that the audiologists and tools such as sound therapy come into play.

So far, about 40 Cleveland Clinic patients have chosen neuromonics and the response has been good.

“I can’t say [that it has a higher success rate], but there’s a higher acceptability rate than with other sound therapies,” Newman said. “I can tell you for many people it has changed their life. I get notes from people, even from some in maintenance therapy.”

Timothy Brown’s life certainly has changed since he began neuromonics treatment in May after trying relaxation techniques and sleep medication.

The tinnitus is not gone, but the noise has changed from a “high-pitched, constant ringing” into “a fuzzier sound.”

“I don’t expect it to be gone,” said Brown, who declined to give his hometown except to say he lives near the Warren, Ohio, clinic at which he underwent treatment.

“The only way I can explain it is, since my involvement with neuromonics, it changes my focal point. It changes my focal point from hearing my tinnitus to dealing with activities around me. ...”