Along the Road to Relief: Medication
Professor Ewart Davies of the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Birmingham UK has an encouraging message. He believes it won't be long until medication provides effective treatments for most cases of tinnitus, despite the vagaries of individual response. The dual nature of tinnitus and its interpretation has naturally influenced the direction of the search for a medical remedy. Most trials have been directed by ear specialists and have aimed primarily at modifying or abolishing the sounds themselves. Among others, diuretics, anti-spasmodic and lidocaine have been investigated. Some have had a modest success. But none are ideal for the extended use that people with persistent tinnitus often need. Diuretics flush nutrients from the system, which then must be replaced; anti-convulsives may cause problems, lidocaine must be delivered intravenously and its effects appear short-lived. In real life, these are significant drawbacks. For one thing, many doctors will be reluctant to prescribe them. (The eventual best use of these medicines may be to interrupt erroneous nerve signals when they first appear, to prevent them becoming chronic). New anti-convulsives like topiramate and oxcarbazine are less likely to cause problems. A slightly different psychosomatic approach deals with the problem indirectly, aiming to reduce the symptoms that make tinnitus a burden: sleep disturbance, difficult concentrating and feelings of anxiety. This makes sense because we all know that some people have tinnitus but are not really bothered by it. They can sleep well, have sufficient energy and are often unaware of the sounds. Trends in the medical treatment of tinnitus:
Most often prescribed for tinnitus-related problems are:
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