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Medical Forum / Diseases and Disorders / Tinnitus / October 2003A tinnitus related issue
Prior to a few months ago, I was asking patients what percentage of waking hours they heard their tinnitus. More recently, I've been rephrasing the question into two parts: 1. What percentage of the time can you hear your tinnitus if you think about it? 2. What percentage of the time do you actually hear your tinnitus? The answer to the first question is usually much greater, often 80% or more. The answer to the second question is usually much less than to number 1. I'm wondering if there is some "severity index" that could be determined from these numbers. For instance, one possibility is the ratio of 2/1 in percent. The closer that this approaches 100%, obviously the worse the tinnitus. This could be correlated with other indices that people provide or with their determination as to whether they consider themselves to experience tinnitus or suffer from tinnitus. Howard N. Gutnick >Prior to a few months ago, I was asking patients what percentage of waking >hours they heard their tinnitus. .................... I used to ask what percentage of waking hours they "were aware" of their tinnitus, but I think we mean the same thing. ....................... >More recently, I've been rephrasing the question into two parts: > [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] > >Howard N. Gutnick .................... Makes a lot of sense to me. What indices do you currently use, Howard? smn > Prior to a few months ago, I was asking patients what percentage of waking > hours they heard their tinnitus. More recently, I've been rephrasing the [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > The answer to the first question is usually much greater, often 80% or more. > The answer to the second question is usually much less than to number 1. Does this mean that MOST sufferers of tinnitus have times when they listen for the T but can not hear it? I find this very surprising. I thought it was all auditory guns blazing all the time for everyone with this nasty condition. Like it is for me :-( Paul > I'm wondering if there is some "severity index" that could be determined > from these numbers. For instance, one possibility is the ratio of 2/1 in [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > > Howard N. Gutnick > I find this very surprising. I thought it was all auditory guns > blazing all the time for everyone with this nasty condition. > > Like it is for me :-( My T is highly variable. Mostly pretty quiet now, and there are times I can't hear it when I seek it. Susan Howard as you know there is no consistent criterion for severity of tinnitus. I have used minimal - has it at times moderate - has it and it bothers his daytime activities severe - moderate plus needs mediction plus interferes with his sleep. I am currently using making inhibition as a measure for T for the research on the new medication. If the inhibition is reduced, indicates an improvement. At least that is measureable. Murray Grossan, M.D. http://www.ent-consult.com http://www.hydromedonline.com Paul, Most people I see state that they can hear their T if they concentrate/think about it far more often than they are aware of it when they are otherwise distracted, busy with other things, or in some background of noise. But most people do hear it if they think about it. So you're not in the minority at all about that issue. Unfortunately, it's hard not to think about the elephant in your living room that is creating a stink. Howard N. Gutnick > > Prior to a few months ago, I was asking patients what percentage of waking > > hours they heard their tinnitus. More recently, I've been rephrasing the [quoted text clipped - 26 lines] > > > > Howard N. Gutnick > Paul, > [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > > Howard N. Gutnick Honestly, I was just surprised that there are some people that have phases where they DON'T hear it if they listen for it. From here inside my own little world, if this T of mine somehow turned into an ocassional thing, I'd see that as a very good thing :-) Thanks Paul > > > Prior to a few months ago, I was asking patients what percentage of > waking [quoted text clipped - 30 lines] > > > > > > Howard N. Gutnick Paul- I too have periods where my T is barely audible. Like Susan and others my T is very variable from day to day. Unfortunately the barely audible period comes too infrequently. To expand a little bit on that: I have three distinct T frequencies which generally are out of sync with each other. That is, they're not all loud or soft at the same time (except for those rare periods that I mentioned above). Regards, PaulS "Paul" <kbtrans@qwest.net> wrote in message news:3F94225.745A9001@qwest.net... > > Paul, > > [quoted text clipped - 53 lines] > > > > > > > > Howard N. Gutnick > Prior to a few months ago, I was asking patients what percentage of waking > hours they heard their tinnitus. More recently, I've been rephrasing the [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > > 2. What percentage of the time do you actually hear your tinnitus? I'd say don't ask such questions . . . you make tinnitus a bigger problem. For what do you use the answer to that question ? . . . do you treat differently if the answer is 3 hours insted of 7 hours ? Then the patients think it's a bad thing to hear tinnitus . . . don't tell them that the more time they spent listning or thinking about tinnitus the worse the tinnitus must be. The percentage of time a tinnitus user is hearing tinnitus doesn't say anything about the level, severety or the dammage in the inner ear. All it says is how much of a problem does a person thing tinnitus is. Even the lowest leveled tinnitus can cause a person to listen to it all the time and not accept it and a quite loud tinnitus can be practicaly ignored if it's not seen as a thread. Hearing the tinnitus is not the biggets problem . . . it's the way a person react to it. ie. some people have air conditioners that emit constant noise without bothering people. They might not even hear it. No doubt it's easier if one have an intact hearing ! |
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