electrical stimulation

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Susan Hall - 13 Sep 2005 21:41 GMT

I hope someone reading this will be able to help me to identify a
treatment for which I have only a vague description.

My father (age 70) is currently suffering from tinnitus. In 1997, he saw
an audiologist and received a treatment that he claims left him
symptom-free for many years. Only this year has the tinnitus come back
to a level that's bothering him again. He doesn't remember the doctor's
name, and at that time he had no GP to whom the records of that visit
would have been transfered. He's described the treatment to another
audiologist who doesn't know what he's talking about.

He says it was some kind of electrical stimulation applied to both ears,
that lasted about an hour. After that one treatment, he considered
himself cured, and never went back. He says he can't remember anything
more specific, but I've sent him a list of questions to try to jog his
memory further.

Does anyone have a clue as to what that treatment might have been? He's
eager to try it again, but no one knows what it is.

Thanks in advance (fingers crossed!)

Susan

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Howard Gutnick - 13 Sep 2005 22:45 GMT

I wonder if he had a diagnostic procedure called a Brainstem Auditory Evoked
Response. Small disk electrodes are placed on the forehead, on the top of
the head, and on each earlobe. Click like sounds are presented separately to
each ear and the brains EEG is measured and computer processed. This
procedure, which is non invasive, is often completed for people who come in
complaining of tinnitus. It is the only thing I can think of that would be
considered "electrical", but it is not a treatment.

Ask your father if this rings a bell, metaphorically speaking :^)

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>I hope someone reading this will be able to help me to identify a
> treatment for which I have only a vague description.
[quoted text clipped - 19 lines]
>
> Susan

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Susan Hall - 14 Sep 2005 23:50 GMT

Well, my father wrote back today and says there was something inserted
into his ear canals, for about one hour. He's never mentioned any sounds
during the treatment, but I guess I'd better ask him specifically. It
was given as a treatment, not a diagnostic (dad recalls), and he's sure
it was referred to as "electrical stimulation." I believe he was
supposed to come back for a series, but the buzzing was completely gone
so he didn't go back (he hates anything associated with doctors or
hospitals). He also confirmed that he's been completely free of tinnitus
for the last 8 years, until it returned with a vengeance just a few
months ago.

Someone here at work also wondered if it wasn't something to do with
playing back the tones matching the tinnitus's frequencies in an attempt
to jam or block them or something. But dad's noise is more of a buzzing
than tonal.

In response to the other poster, it was at the Ottawa Civic Hospital,
Feb or March 1997. The do have an ENT department, I see from the
website. Dad said he called the hospital and got nowhere, but I don't
know who he talked to or what he asked. I might give them a call myself.
But ---

As it turns out, my boss (psych prof) had a student in the late
80s/early 90s who went on to do audiology. They kept in touch for a few
years, and he remembers her first name AND that she went to work at the
Ottawa Civic after her audiology degree! So, he's going to search his
records tonight to see if he can find her last name and we'll look her
up, before I call the Ottawa Civic myself.

I'm just so curious now to get this solved. I realize it's entirely
possible that the cure was a coincidence, but who knows? I'll keep you
informed if I find out anything!

Susan

PS I have seen the odd reference to "electrical stimulation" in web
searches on tinnitus, but so far only as an item in a list of things
that probably don't work! (But no clear explanation of what it is
exactly that doesn't work.) Oh yes, also in the context of more invasive
treatments, eg, there's a paper about implanting electrodes in the
brain, but obviously that's not it...

> I wonder if he had a diagnostic procedure called a Brainstem Auditory Evoked
> Response. Small disk electrodes are placed on the forehead, on the top of
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
>
> Ask your father if this rings a bell, metaphorically speaking :^)

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Jim Chinnis - 13 Sep 2005 23:16 GMT

Susan Hall <susanhal@dal.ca> wrote in part:

>I hope someone reading this will be able to help me to identify a
>treatment for which I have only a vague description.
[quoted text clipped - 19 lines]
>
>Susan

Does he remember *where* the audiologist practiced? Country, city?

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Jim Chinnis / Warrenton, Virginia, USA
Want to discuss Meniere's? See http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MenieresDG

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