Tinnitus

About this PSP

The British Tinnitus Association, in partnership with the NIHR Nottingham Hearing Biomedical Research Unit set up this PSP in September 2011. The project was funded by the Judi Meadows Memorial Fund and in-kind donations of staff time were contributed by the British Tinnitus Association and the NIHR Nottingham Hearing Biomedical Research Unit.

835 people responded to the initial survey, submitting 2,483 questions for the PSP to review. 630 responses were received to the interim priority setting survey, which set the list of 26 questions to be discussed at the final workshop.

See news from this PSP: February 2017.

The Tinnitus PSP Top 10 was published in July 2012.


Articles and publications
Impact after the Top 10

Key documents

Tinnitus PSP Protocol

JLA-Tinnitus-Final-PSP-Workshop-Booklet.pdf

Tinnitus-PSP-spreadsheet-of-data.pdf

Top 10 priorities

(in no order of priority)

  • What management strategies are more effective than a usual model of audiological care in improving outcomes for people with tinnitus?
  • Is Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), delivered by audiology professionals, effective for people with tinnitus? Here comparisons might be with usual audiological care or CBT delivered by a psychologist.
  • What management strategies are more effective for improving tinnitus-related insomnia than a usual model of care?
  • Do any of the various available complementary therapies provide improved outcome for people with tinnitus compared with a usual model of care?
  • What type of digital hearing aid or amplification strategy provides the most effective tinnitus relief?
  • What is the optimal set of guidelines for assessing children with tinnitus?
  • How can tinnitus be effectively managed in people who are Deaf or who have a profound hearing loss?
  • Are there different types of tinnitus and can they be explained by different mechanisms in the ear or brain?
  • What is the link between tinnitus and hyperacusis (over-sensitivity to sounds)?
  • Which medications have proven to be effective in tinnitus management compared with placebo?

The following question was carefully deliberated and just fell outside of the Top 10, however participants in the workshop felt it was worthy of a special mention

  • Does stem cell technology (e.g. for hair cell regeneration) provide an effective pipeline to develop new medical interventions for treating tinnitus?

Document downloads

To see more uncertainties identified for Tinnitus see the document below

Tinnitus-PSP-spreadsheet-of-data.pdf