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Background
Tinnitus is a highly prevalent symptom, affecting 10–15% of the adult population. Tinnitus influenced by alterations in somatosensory afference from the neck or jaw is referred to as somatic tinnitus (ST). ST is known to respond positively to physiotherapy treatment; however, it is challenging to motivate patients to systematically perfo...
Citations
... Tinnitus, commonly described as a ringing, hissing, sizzling, humming, whistling, wind blowing, or buzzing in the ears without external sound, affects a significant portion, i.e. about 10% to 15% of the general population, and can rise as high as 18% in industrialized areas, leading to various degrees of discomfort and disability. [1,2] The etiology is multifactorial, with auditory and nonauditory systems playing a role in its perception and impact. [3] Further, the most common classification of tinnitus is subjective or objective tinnitus based on whether other people can perceive it. ...
... In addition, somatic tinnitus is often worsened by musculoskeletal factors such as poor posture, neck or jaw injury, or TMJ disorders, further setting it apart from other forms of tinnitus. [1,4] Problems of head and neck that are often described in conjunction with tinnitus are irregular muscular tension, cervicalgia, persistent spasms, and limited range of motion (ROM). [5] While in some patients, the symptoms are associated with mood changes, anxiety, depression, sleep disorders, concentration problems, and other issues. ...
... [5] While in some patients, the symptoms are associated with mood changes, anxiety, depression, sleep disorders, concentration problems, and other issues. [1] Several medications have been studied to treat tinnitus, but only a small number give a limited benefit. The drugs preferred are antidepressants, antianxiety, anticonvulsants, and antihistamines. ...
Context
Somatic tinnitus is the conscious perception of auditory sensation in the absence of an external stimulus, characterized by buzzing, ringing, hissing, or whistling noises which can affect the quality of life. It may be caused by cervical and temporomandibular joint (TMJ) dysfunction. To date, there is no comprehensive physiotherapy protocol to manage somatic tinnitus with cervical and TMJ dysfunction. However, there is little evidence about individual physiotherapy approaches and no comprehensive integrated protocol exists for managing tinnitus holistically.
Aims
This study aimed to develop and assess the feasibility of an integrated SPARKS physiotherapy protocol for individuals suffering from somatic tinnitus.
Settings and Design
This feasibility study involved 22 participants clinically diagnosed with somatic tinnitus and were randomly assigned to either a control group or an experimental group.
Materials and Methods
The integrated protocol was developed to manage somatic tinnitus using manual therapy, exercises, and virtual reality. The outcomes were assessed on days 1 and 28 using a tinnitus handicap inventory (THI), sleep disorder questionnaire (SDQ), and neck Bournemouth questionnaire (NBQ) to evaluate tinnitus symptoms, sleep quality, pain reduction, and neck disability.
Results
Analysis demonstrated significant improvement in all three outcomes in the experimental group ( P < 0.05). Between-group analysis of THI ( P = 0.0001), SDQ ( P = 0.0108), and NBQ ( P = 0.0001) indicates a statistically superior improvement in the experimental group, in comparison to the control group ( P > 0.05).
Conclusions
This novel SPARKS physiotherapy protocol for somatic tinnitus has demonstrated superior effectiveness in managing tinnitus compared to traditional medical treatments and it shows a promising and safe multimodal approach.
... Demoen et al. [60] have described an approach where the mobile app does not completely replace the therapeutic program, but complements and continues it, an approach that may reduce treatment costs. The protocol they describe is for a randomised controlled trial which aims to gauge both the effectiveness and cost of a mixed physiotherapy and counseling program for somatic tinnitus using an app. ...
Introduction
Tinnitus is a condition that requires multidisciplinary care and monitoring. Widespread use of mobile devices and ready access to the internet offers a possible solution since smartphones can run apps programmed for a particular health problem. The aim of the article is to assess the scale and direction of how mobile apps are being created and used to diagnose and treat tinnitus.
Material and methods
Publications in Google Scholar, PubMed, and ResearchGate were searched for the years 2010–2023. The results of the review were organized by themes.
Results
Hits were organized into the following themes: (1) existing mobile apps for tinnitus, (2) apps supporting the diagnosis of tinnitus, (3) apps supporting tinnitus therapy, (4) a look to the future – sensors built-in or connected to mobile devices, wearables, artificial intelligence (AI), and big data systems.
Conclusions
Smartphone-based apps with ecological momentary assessment methods and the possibilities of using wearable diagnostic devices might be useful in better understanding the variability of tinnitus and perhaps its causes. Mobile crowdsensing and central databases with big data and artificial intelligence support appear to be a valuable resource for new scientific research. There are now mobile apps providing a variety of therapies – sound therapy, self-help psychology, and educational training. Equally important for tinnitus therapy are smart devices managed by mobile apps – hearing aids, cochlear implants, and other hearables. In the future, development of mobile technologies and artificial intelligence will help create smart therapy platforms for tinnitus.
Many individually randomized group treatment (IRGT) trials randomly assign individuals to study arms but deliver treatments via shared agents, such as therapists, surgeons, or trainers. Post‐randomization interactions induce correlations in outcome measures between participants sharing the same agent. Agents can be nested in or crossed with trial arm, and participants may interact with a single agent or with multiple agents. These complications have led to ambiguity in choice of models but there have been no systematic efforts to identify appropriate analytic models for these study designs. To address this gap, we undertook a simulation study to examine the performance of candidate analytic models in the presence of complex clustering arising from multiple membership, single membership, and single agent settings, in both nested and crossed designs and for a continuous outcome. With nested designs, substantial type I error rate inflation was observed when analytic models did not account for multiple membership and when analytic model weights characterizing the association with multiple agents did not match the data generating mechanism. Conversely, analytic models for crossed designs generally maintained nominal type I error rates unless there was notable imbalance in the number of participants that interact with each agent.