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The Effects of Compensatory Auditory Stimulation and Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation on Tinnitus Perception

S

Soterix Medical

Status

Completed

Conditions

Tinnitus

Treatments

Other: Combined CAS and tDCS
Device: transcranial direct current stimulation
Other: Compensatory auditory stimulation
Other: Sham stimulation

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Industry

Identifiers

NCT02648542
CASTDCS001

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study evaluates the ability of compensatory auditory stimulation (CAS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to help alleviate tinnitus. Subjects will receive CAS, tDCS, and the combination of the two to assess the effectiveness of the treatment.

Full description

Tinnitus refers to persistent "ringing in the ears" in absence of external sound. For some individuals tinnitus can be disabling. Most tinnitus is of idiopathic origin and currently there are no reliable treatment options available. Existing approaches, such as hearing aids, counseling, and noise masking typically provide only partial relief and only for a minority of patients. Newer exploratory methods include tailored auditory stimulation and various brain stimulation techniques. While these techniques show great promise in a subset of subjects (maybe about 1/3), it is hard to anticipate which, if any, will benefit a given patient.

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) has been explored for a number of neurological conditions, and it is most effective when paired with some form of training (e.g. motor rehab after stroke). For tinnitus however this treatment modality has only been tested in isolation. The purpose of this pilot study is to explore the benefits of combining tailored compensatory auditory stimulation with tDCS.

There is widespread consensus in the research community that tinnitus originates with some peripheral hearing deficit, and that maladaptive central plastic mechanisms subsequently lead to the tinnitus percept. Most individuals with tinnitus have audiometric evidence of hearing loss. Our hypothesis is that reduced input to the auditory pathway leads to increased sensitivity (auditory gain) and finally aberrant activity in the frequency band with hearing loss. In this view, auditory stimulation that compensates for the reduced input can potentially revert the maladaptive plasticity.This is consistent with the reported benefits of hearing aids and tailored auditory stimulation. Our hypothesis is that tDCS can boost adaptation induced by compensatory auditory stimulation to reduce the strength of the phantom percept.

Enrollment

17 patients

Sex

All

Ages

18 to 80 years old

Volunteers

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

  • Between 18-80 years of age
  • No history of otological disease
  • Subjects with hearing loss, hyperacusis and/or tinnitus are eligible to participate

Exclusion criteria

  • hearing loss greater than 50 dB HL
  • Shows signs of depression or anxiety (Zung self-rating Depression Scale > 50; Beck Anxiety Inventory > 36)

Trial design

Primary purpose

Treatment

Allocation

Randomized

Interventional model

Crossover Assignment

Masking

Single Blind

17 participants in 2 patient groups

CAS vs. tDCS
Active Comparator group
Description:
Assess the efficacy of compensatory auditory stimulation (CAS) versus transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS)
Treatment:
Other: Compensatory auditory stimulation
Device: transcranial direct current stimulation
Combined CAS+tDCS vs. Sham
Sham Comparator group
Description:
Assess the efficacy of combined compensatory auditory stimulation (CAS) + transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) versus sham stimulation
Treatment:
Other: Sham stimulation
Other: Combined CAS and tDCS

Trial contacts and locations

0

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Data sourced from clinicaltrials.gov

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