Study to investigate ear sound

  • Published
  • By Robert J. Olsson and Maj. (Dr.) Ada Haber-Pérez,
  • 60th Aerospace Medicine Squadron audiology flight
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  Ricky worries that the noises in his head will give him a nervous breakdown. Ann's noises make it difficult to concentrate on anything. Rob reports the ringing he constantly hears makes him more irritable with his family and friends.

Ricky, Ann and Rob's experiences with tinnitus are not uncommon. An estimated 20 percent of the population experiences subjective sounds, most commonly ringing, buzzing or humming, in the ears at least part of the time. The incidence in the military population is unknown but undoubtedly higher. Military life is noisy. Combat, weapons, military aviation and shipboard life routinely generate sound levels intense enough to damage our delicate hearing nerves.

Around 23 percent of those who experience tinnitus are negatively impacted by its presence.

In 2009, for the third consecutive year, tinnitus has been ranked by the Department of Veterans Affairs as the No. 1 service-connected disability for personnel returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2009, the annual compensation claims paid out by the V.A. for tinnitus were $1.1 billion.

Given the scope of the problem, the need to determine what form of therapy is most effective. The National Institutes of Health, a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is now conducting a tinnitus retraining therapy trial study. This is a multi-center study designed to assess the efficacy of TRT as a treatment for severe debilitating tinnitus.

TRT is a non-medical intervention that uses specialized counseling and sound therapy to habituate the patient to tinnitus, minimizing its impact on the patient's life. Their goal is to get the patient to the point where tinnitus is just another sound in the environment that is subconsciously filtered out. We habituate to sounds all the time. Two excellent examples are our response--or rather, our lack of response--to building air conditioning. We only notice the sound of the office air conditioning when it turns on or off.

Six military medical treatment facilities are participating in this study. David Grant USAF Medical Center along with five other military treatment facilities are currently participating in this research study for Department of Defense beneficiaries on reducing the effects of tinnitus, a condition in which a person experiences sounds in one or both ears.

Criteria to participate in the study include eligibility to receive medical care in a military treatment facility. The tinnitus must negatively impact daily functioning. For example, the tinnitus might interfere with concentrating on the job, cause trouble getting to sleep or prevent relaxing when in a quiet place.

All participants meeting the study criteria will receive individual tinnitus therapy. Participants will be randomly assigned to directive counseling plus sound therapy with conventional ear-level noise generators, directive counseling plus placebo noise generators or standard-of-care counseling with no ear-level devices.

Participants wanting to volunteer for the study or interested in additional information can contact Andrea Franzer, Audiology Clinic study coordinator at 423-7662 or afranzer4@gmail.com, or Maj. Ada Haber-Pérez, Audiology Flight commander, at 423-7149.