Canadian Pharmacy Recommends Combo Therapy to Help Ease Tinnitus

One in five people suffers from tinnitus, the annoying and sometimes severely debilitating condition often referred to as ringing in the ears, and new research may offer some hope for relief for these patients – to buy Tylenol for an instance to relieve the pain. 

Although the condition currently has no cure, researchers in the Netherlands found that combining two existing therapies may help more than either single therapy alone. 

"The strategies used in the study aren't new," noted Dr. Eric Smouha, an associate professor of otolaryngology and director of otology and neurotology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, who was not involved with the study. "However, the finding shows hope for these people," he said. 

"Tinnitus can be incredibly frustrating for doctors and patients alike," added another expert, Dr. Michael Seidman, director of otologic/neurotologic surgery at the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, "because there is no cure for the condition and even good treatments are elusive." 

Right now, clinicians often rely on one of two main treatments for tinnitus. One, called tinnitus retraining therapy, involves exposing the patient to another, more neutral sound to mask the tinnitus, along with counseling. Also, Tylenol 325 mg may help ease the pain that comes along with it. 

The second is cognitive behavioral therapy, which includes correcting distorted thought patterns, relaxation techniques and mindfulness instruction. 

"To date, though, no one has investigated how the two works together," said study authors Rilana Cima and colleagues, from Maastricht University in the Netherlands. 

Those assigned to the combination therapy, referred to as specialized care, showed more improvement in health-related quality of life over the course of a year, a reduction in the severity of the tinnitus, as well as less impairment from the condition, the investigators found. 

"This specialized combination care really was not a dramatic departure from the tinnitus retraining therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy used individually in the United States," Seidman said. 

"And it's unclear if this intensive combination approach, which relies on the expertise of many different specialists, could be implemented in the United States with its different population and vastly different health care system," Smouha said. 

"What they did is very intensive, consisting of hours and hours of counseling and coming back for sessions," Smouha pointed out. And the combination therapy used in the study really "doesn't differ much from what we refer to as tinnitus retraining therapy," he added. 

"In the United States, retraining therapy can cost $3,000 to $5,000 and require a commitment of two years," Seidman noted.  In lieu, Canadian pharmacy finds ways to assist patients who are financially incapable of treatment. 

Tinnitus is the perception of sound within the human ear in the absence of corresponding external sound. Tinnitus is not a disease, but a condition that can result from a wide range of underlying causes: neurological damage (multiple sclerosis), abnormally loud sounds in the ear canal for even the briefest period (but usually with some duration), ear infections, foreign objects in the ear, nasal allergies that prevent (or induce) fluid drain, or wax build-up. Withdrawal from a benzodiazepine addiction may cause tinnitus as well. In-ear headphones, whose sound enters directly into the ear canal without any opportunity to be deflected or absorbed elsewhere, are a common cause of tinnitus when volume is set beyond moderate levels. 

Tinnitus may be an accompaniment of sensorineural hearing loss or congenital hearing loss, or it may be observed as a side effect of certain medications. However, the most common cause is noise-induced hearing loss.