Retraining the tinnitus brain

We've probably all experienced a little bit of tinnitus, or ringing in the ears, at some stage in our lives. But for some people this phantom sound in their brain can be loud, and permanent, and completely debilitating. Claire Concannon speaks to a group of scientists at the University of Auckland who've been researching ways to help for years, and have developed a digital therapy with promising trial results.

Imagine the whistle of a kettle boiling, turned up to full blast, permanently on.

In your head.

How would it affect your mood? Your attention and focus?

Follow Our Changing World on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeartRADIO, Google Podcasts, RadioPublic or wherever you listen to your podcasts

"It's difficult to describe but it just has such an impact on every facet of your life. You know, your sleeping habits, your mental health, your relationships with other people."

Emily Lane was born with a hearing disability and has had tinnitus on and off all her life. But in 2006 it turned up permanently, and it was loud. "It's like a chorus of cicadas living permanently on full blast inside my head."

Many of us will experience a form of tinnitus at some stage in our lives, what Professor Grant Searchfield terms 'nightclub tinnitus'. After a loud night out, we might wake in the morning with a ringing or buzzing in our ears, but it's likely to fade after a few hours.

Head of Audiology at the University of Auckland, Grant became interested in tinnitus when, as a practising audiologist, he didn't have any answers for patients who came to him for help.

Since then, he has been investigating how to help chronic tinnitus sufferers - people who have experienced this phantom sound for more than six months, and whose lives are significantly impacted by it. And one thing has become very clear - this is a condition that varies widely from person to person, therefore the treatment must also vary.

And it's not just the sound that varies, but also the person's response to the sound, and to treatment. This idea underpins the design of the digital therapeutic the team have developed to help tinnitus sufferers. Users get an app on their phone that allows them to select what they need - whether it's nature soundscapes to help the person relax, complex sounds to help them get relief from their tinnitus, or active sound-based games to help retrain the brain.

The team ran a trial using a prototype of this digital therapy and found that, after twelve weeks of use, 65% of patients showed a clinically meaningful change in how badly their tinnitus impacted their lives. This was compared to 43% in the other group, which was given a popular sound therapy app…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details