Phase Shift Treatment (Sound Cancellation Treatment)... a con?

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Tristán White - 17 Nov 2005 16:25 GMT

Hi there

I had serious ear surgery last August here in London at the Royal
National Throat Nose & Ear Hospital. I had a mastoidectomy following
attic retraction in my left eardrum.

A new eardrum was made from local tissue, and a few bones removed.

I am waiting a few more months and hopefully by next summer they will
start putting in prosthetic bones (anvil, malleus, etc)

Then when this is healed, they will do the same routing on my right
ear which also has an attic retraction.

* * * * *

Since a couple of weeks prior to the operation I have been having
terrible tinnitus. A white noise sound that is constant. Louder at
night. Better with music but my wife's a light sleeper so don't want
to put music on, and my eardrums are too tender to tolerate a walkman.

This has been keeping me awake until minimum 3 am every night, and I
need to get up by 9 am to be at work for 10.30

I am avoiding the tube at the moment where possible (the subway),
using buses and overland trains, because it becomes painful when the
tube train goes really deep, such as when it goes under the Thames. On
my way home (London Bridge to Canning Town) the Jubilee Line goes
under the Thames three times in 14 minutes, so I am instead taking
buses and trains - taking an hour and a half to get home instead of
about 30 minutes. Whenever I have tried the tubes, that night the
problem with tinnitus has been that much worse.

Of course, the extra stress of the journey home during rush hour adds
to my stress.

To add to the problem, my department has been outsourced and I am
facing possible (read: likely) redundancy. This has been another
factor contributing towards my redundancy.

The stress from work, from my tube journey, plus the trauma from the
surgery, and the stress from the fact the operation hasn't healed as
well as it should, has contributed to my stress. I began to get panic
attacks (something I had confined to the annals of my own history some
years ago) and am now back on the betablockers. These have helped with
my panic over the tinnitus, but have not helped in diminishing the
loud noise the tinnitus brings. It's a white noise - like leaving the
gas on.

Over the past couple of weeks I've been getting sporadic pain down the
side of my face (PRAY it's not some kind of neuralgia) and this has
been extremely painful. Sharp bursts, from the head down to the neck.
This is horrible. My dad has trigeminal neuralgia and I hope I am not
getting something similar.

So as you can see I'm (a) pretty desperate, (b) poor and can't afford
any expensive treatment and (c) whilst at the best hospital in the
country for ENT treatment on the NHS, appointments are like every four
to five months... which can be very enfuriating.

* * * * *

So now onto the matter raised in the subject. I saw in yesterday's
London Evening Standard an advertisement for Tinnitus Care -
http://www.tinnituscare.com/

They told me they were developing a radical new treatment whereby they
assess your tinnitus, create some kind of anti-sound that when played
makes the tinnitus seem better, and that after three sessions 70% of
patients are cured. The first consultancy is completely free, and with
no obligation to do the treatment.

I told them all about my tinnitus, and the panic attacks. The response
I got from the person at the end of the phone was so alarmist,
especially after I had told her about my anxiety. When I referred to
the tinnitus sound in my ear, she said, "You do know that it's not
your ear making the sound, that it's your brain". I said I didn't. She
told me that it's a fallacy that people hear the sound and assume it's
an ear problem, and told me that the ear infection I had (which lead
to the need for surgery / mastoidectomy) could have attacked part of
my brain and that the sound I was hearing was a brain malfunction as a
result.

F**** ME that freaked me out. In spite of the betablockers controlling
my panic attacks I had the beginnings of one right there and then.
Scared the shite out of me to be honest.

She told me to come in for a free no-obligations consultancy. If they
thought they can help, they'd make this antisound for me (sound
cancellation) and give me 3 treatments of PST (Phase Shift Treatment),
45 minutes each, at £85 UKP each.

If after those three treatments I am still not cured, then I can
either continue with the treatments at £85 a pop, or I can buy the
tape that they make especially for me, at £985 outright.

This may sound like a bargain to the American readers of
alt.support.tinnitus, but over here in the UK healthcare is free. I
had my mastoidectomy free, the hospital stay, the treatment, the
precare, the aftercare, all paid for by the NHS, as is the right of
every other citizen on the UK. You only pay for treatment if you are
seriously loaded with money and can't wait the three or four months
that you have to wait on the National Health Service. But in cases of
emergency, you will still get it free on the NHS.

I reminded them of my financial situation at the moment, facing
possible redundancy, and they said they do a really nice loan plan
whereby I can pay it off over a series of months - I am sure the
monthly repayment interest is not *that* nice.

The whole thing - come in no obligation blah-di-blah - sounded almost
like a timeshare meeting to me. I don't have work health insurance (ie
a scheme such as Bupa, where work pays for you to go private and avoid
the wait) but they volunteered the information that Bupa wouldn't
cover me. Which flabbergasted me to be honest, as Bupa and their ilk
pay for any private medical cover that you could not get immediately
on the NHS - usually. It made me think.

Any experience in these things?

* * * * *

So, panicking about what that stuff about my brain, I called the
British Tinnitus Association http://www.tinnitus.org.uk and looked on
their website as well. I spoke to a lovely lady there. She told me
first of all that the BTA would not recommend PST as a treatment for
tinnitus. Interesting!

She then said she'd never heard of this Tinnitus Care outfit (even
more interesting, it makes one wonder how reliable Tinnitus Care are)
and she was positively shocked at the advice they had given me, namely
that they had (in spite of being aware of my anxiety problems)
purposely scared me by talking about the noise coming from my brain
and that this could directly be because of the ear infection's
proximity to my brain, over the phone with no one actually seeing my
ear, and causing alarm. She recommended I ignore them.

Especially as they were going on about how their treatment was very
new and innovative, whereas in fact it's been around for a number of
years.

She said instead I should try and get my hospital to speed up
treatment to deal with my tinnitus, as they have one of the best
tinnitus experts in the country and it would be free on the NHS.

* * * * *

I must say I was amazed (and relieved) at the contrasting opinions. so
first of all, I wanted to come onto alt.support.tinnitus for the first
time (hi people) and say "DO NOT believe the first people you ring,
get a second opinion, there is a lot of misinformation out there, and
people may be quick to scare you into taking an overpriced treatment
that may not cure you.

Secondly, and this is just my curiosity here, has anyone taken PST and
discovered that they have been actually cured of the blight of
tinnitus?? Has it worked for anyone, just the initial three lots of
£85 45-minute sessions, without the need to have to shell out for your
own copy of the tape?

Would be interested in your feedback.

TRISTÁN

Reply to this Message

Stricture - 17 Nov 2005 18:05 GMT

Hi Tristan,

I'm top-posting here because otherwise my reply might get lost under your
very long (but interesting :-) post!

Briefly, I would avoid any therapy which is sold in any way to make you
further stressed, and especially if they try to milk you for this sort of
money. Stress is _very_ bad for tinnitus.

It sounds like you have sound medical reasons for your tinnitus and as a
layman, I can't comment on this or the medical solutions for it.

Remember there is _lots_ of 'snake-oil' out there for tinnitus and probably
the more expensive and pretentious it is, the less successful.

The 'placebo effect' can be a significant factor when evaluating treatments
for tinnitus (since its loudness is conditioned by how you feel about it and
what else your brain is busy with at the time). So, if you spend a lot of
money and are treated by convincing actors in white coats, who knows their
'treatment' could well _seem_ to help. But personally I wouldn't bother.

As for 'phase shift' treatment, if this means what is says, it is nonsense.
Tinnitus is not wave-derived like a real-world sound, it is some form of
stimulation in the nerve or brain. Therefore it cannot be cancelled out by
another wave of opposing phase. Even if it could, since the frequency of
most people's tinnitus is so high, it's most unlikely it would be possible
to create such a wave that would accurately track the 'wave' of the
tinnitus. And in many cases, tinnitus is not a pure tone anyway. You
yourself report white noise. There's no way this could be cancelled out,
even if the theory were sound.

However, there is an effect called 'residual inhibition'. Sometimes playing
a short sound into the ear(s) that resembles the tinnitus can produce a
cancelling effect that can last from seconds to minutes. I have tried
experiments along these lines and built a device that helped me. Also,
hearing aids amplifying sound around the tinnitus frequencies can very
effectively block tinnitus, even after they're taken off!

My tips: basically relax if you can, wear mild hearing amplification (even
if your hearing is otherwise normal) listen to white noise, pulsed if
possible, and take ¼ aspirin a day if your doctor agrees. But if anything
makes you feel uncomfortable or your tinnitus worse, stop it immediately.
We're all different. Remember too that most tinnitus gets better over time,

All the best,

Steve

> Hi there
>
[quoted text clipped - 159 lines]
>
> TRISTÁN

Reply to this Message

VB - 18 Nov 2005 16:55 GMT

Hi,

Have you searched through http://www.tinnitus.org/ , especially on TRT?

Try contact Jacqueline Sheldrake (of the TRT camp) at (00144 - this is
for the UK so you may just dial) 207 487201, or address:

32 (and 34, I think) Devonshire Place,
London W1G 6JL,
UK

Hope you get well soon,

VB

Reply to this Message

Elly Byrne - 22 Nov 2005 19:34 GMT

Tristan, what ever you do stay away from ear candles.
No ear candles!
No No NO EAR CANDLES!!!

Elly's Tinnitus Resources
http://eebee.net/

>Hi there
>
[quoted text clipped - 159 lines]
>
>TRISTÁN

Reply to this Message

Howard N. Gutnick - 22 Nov 2005 20:43 GMT

And for once I totally agree with Elly.

HNG
Tristan, what ever you do stay away from ear candles.
No ear candles!
No No NO EAR CANDLES!!!

Elly's Tinnitus Resources
http://eebee.net/

Tristán White <Tristan_White@rocketmail.com> wrote:

>Hi there
>
>I had serious ear surgery last August here in London at the Royal
>National Throat Nose & Ear Hospital. I had a mastoidectomy following
>attic retraction in my left eardrum.
>
>A new eardrum was made from local tissue, and a few bones removed.
>
>I am waiting a few more months and hopefully by next summer they will
>start putting in prosthetic bones (anvil, malleus, etc)
>
>Then when this is healed, they will do the same routing on my right
>ear which also has an attic retraction.
>
>* * * * *
>
>Since a couple of weeks prior to the operation I have been having
>terrible tinnitus. A white noise sound that is constant. Louder at
>night. Better with music but my wife's a light sleeper so don't want
>to put music on, and my eardrums are too tender to tolerate a walkman.
>
>This has been keeping me awake until minimum 3 am every night, and I
>need to get up by 9 am to be at work for 10.30
>
>I am avoiding the tube at the moment where possible (the subway),
>using buses and overland trains, because it becomes painful when the
>tube train goes really deep, such as when it goes under the Thames. On
>my way home (London Bridge to Canning Town) the Jubilee Line goes
>under the Thames three times in 14 minutes, so I am instead taking
>buses and trains - taking an hour and a half to get home instead of
>about 30 minutes. Whenever I have tried the tubes, that night the
>problem with tinnitus has been that much worse.
>
>Of course, the extra stress of the journey home during rush hour adds
>to my stress.
>
>To add to the problem, my department has been outsourced and I am
>facing possible (read: likely) redundancy. This has been another
>factor contributing towards my redundancy.
>
>The stress from work, from my tube journey, plus the trauma from the
>surgery, and the stress from the fact the operation hasn't healed as
>well as it should, has contributed to my stress. I began to get panic
>attacks (something I had confined to the annals of my own history some
>years ago) and am now back on the betablockers. These have helped with
>my panic over the tinnitus, but have not helped in diminishing the
>loud noise the tinnitus brings. It's a white noise - like leaving the
>gas on.
>
>Over the past couple of weeks I've been getting sporadic pain down the
>side of my face (PRAY it's not some kind of neuralgia) and this has
>been extremely painful. Sharp bursts, from the head down to the neck.
>This is horrible. My dad has trigeminal neuralgia and I hope I am not
>getting something similar.
>
>So as you can see I'm (a) pretty desperate, (b) poor and can't afford
>any expensive treatment and (c) whilst at the best hospital in the
>country for ENT treatment on the NHS, appointments are like every four
>to five months... which can be very enfuriating.
>
>* * * * *
>
>So now onto the matter raised in the subject. I saw in yesterday's
>London Evening Standard an advertisement for Tinnitus Care -
>http://www.tinnituscare.com/
>
>They told me they were developing a radical new treatment whereby they
>assess your tinnitus, create some kind of anti-sound that when played
>makes the tinnitus seem better, and that after three sessions 70% of
>patients are cured. The first consultancy is completely free, and with
>no obligation to do the treatment.
>
>I told them all about my tinnitus, and the panic attacks. The response
>I got from the person at the end of the phone was so alarmist,
>especially after I had told her about my anxiety. When I referred to
>the tinnitus sound in my ear, she said, "You do know that it's not
>your ear making the sound, that it's your brain". I said I didn't. She
>told me that it's a fallacy that people hear the sound and assume it's
>an ear problem, and told me that the ear infection I had (which lead
>to the need for surgery / mastoidectomy) could have attacked part of
>my brain and that the sound I was hearing was a brain malfunction as a
>result.
>
>F**** ME that freaked me out. In spite of the betablockers controlling
>my panic attacks I had the beginnings of one right there and then.
>Scared the shite out of me to be honest.
>
>She told me to come in for a free no-obligations consultancy. If they
>thought they can help, they'd make this antisound for me (sound
>cancellation) and give me 3 treatments of PST (Phase Shift Treatment),
>45 minutes each, at £85 UKP each.
>
>If after those three treatments I am still not cured, then I can
>either continue with the treatments at £85 a pop, or I can buy the
>tape that they make especially for me, at £985 outright.
>
>This may sound like a bargain to the American readers of
>alt.support.tinnitus, but over here in the UK healthcare is free. I
>had my mastoidectomy free, the hospital stay, the treatment, the
>precare, the aftercare, all paid for by the NHS, as is the right of
>every other citizen on the UK. You only pay for treatment if you are
>seriously loaded with money and can't wait the three or four months
>that you have to wait on the National Health Service. But in cases of
>emergency, you will still get it free on the NHS.
>
>I reminded them of my financial situation at the moment, facing
>possible redundancy, and they said they do a really nice loan plan
>whereby I can pay it off over a series of months - I am sure the
>monthly repayment interest is not *that* nice.
>
>The whole thing - come in no obligation blah-di-blah - sounded almost
>like a timeshare meeting to me. I don't have work health insurance (ie
>a scheme such as Bupa, where work pays for you to go private and avoid
>the wait) but they volunteered the information that Bupa wouldn't
>cover me. Which flabbergasted me to be honest, as Bupa and their ilk
>pay for any private medical cover that you could not get immediately
>on the NHS - usually. It made me think.
>
>Any experience in these things?
>
>* * * * *
>
>So, panicking about what that stuff about my brain, I called the
>British Tinnitus Association http://www.tinnitus.org.uk and looked on
>their website as well. I spoke to a lovely lady there. She told me
>first of all that the BTA would not recommend PST as a treatment for
>tinnitus. Interesting!
>
>She then said she'd never heard of this Tinnitus Care outfit (even
>more interesting, it makes one wonder how reliable Tinnitus Care are)
>and she was positively shocked at the advice they had given me, namely
>that they had (in spite of being aware of my anxiety problems)
>purposely scared me by talking about the noise coming from my brain
>and that this could directly be because of the ear infection's
>proximity to my brain, over the phone with no one actually seeing my
>ear, and causing alarm. She recommended I ignore them.
>
>Especially as they were going on about how their treatment was very
>new and innovative, whereas in fact it's been around for a number of
>years.
>
>She said instead I should try and get my hospital to speed up
>treatment to deal with my tinnitus, as they have one of the best
>tinnitus experts in the country and it would be free on the NHS.
>
>* * * * *
>
>I must say I was amazed (and relieved) at the contrasting opinions. so
>first of all, I wanted to come onto alt.support.tinnitus for the first
>time (hi people) and say "DO NOT believe the first people you ring,
>get a second opinion, there is a lot of misinformation out there, and
>people may be quick to scare you into taking an overpriced treatment
>that may not cure you.
>
>Secondly, and this is just my curiosity here, has anyone taken PST and
>discovered that they have been actually cured of the blight of
>tinnitus?? Has it worked for anyone, just the initial three lots of
>£85 45-minute sessions, without the need to have to shell out for your
>own copy of the tape?
>
>Would be interested in your feedback.
>
>TRISTÁN

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