<\/p>
Tinnitus is the sensation of hearing ringing or buzzing in the ears that has no external source. It is thought to affect more than 7 million people in the UK.<\/p>\n
Around one in 20 people with tinnitus experience it to a distressing degree, leading to them having trouble sleeping, difficulty carrying out daily tasks and suffering from depression.<\/p>\n
There is currently no cure and few effective treatments.<\/p>\n
Now, researchers form the University of Auckland, New Zealand have developed a smartphone app-based treatment that successfully relieved the symptoms of 65 per cent of the participants in a small trial.<\/a><\/p>\n The study randomly assigned 61 volunteers suffering from tinnitus one of two 12-week treatment programmes \u2013 the new smartphone app-based treatment or a popular self-help app that aims to lessen the symptoms of tinnitus using white noise.<\/p>\n Those receiving the new treatment underwent an initial assessment by an audiologist who developed a personalised treatment plan based on their individual experience of tinnitus.<\/p>\n The app contained a mix of passive and active listening tasks along with written counselling material. The participants were also given Bluetooth bone conduction headphones and a neck pillow speaker to listen to it.<\/p>\n They found that 65 per cent of the volunteers undergoing the new treatment reported significant improvements in their symptoms while those using the white noise app reported no improvement.<\/p>\n \u201cEarlier trials have found white noise, goal-based counselling, goal-oriented games and other technology-based therapies are effective for some people some of the time,\u201d said Dr Grant Searchfield<\/a>, an associate professor in Audiology at the University of Auckland.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is quicker and more effective, taking 12 weeks rather than 12 months for more individuals to gain some control.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat this therapy does is essentially rewire the brain in a way that de-emphasises the sound of the tinnitus to a background noise that has no meaning or relevance to the listener.\u201d<\/p>\n The team now plan to refine the treatment and carry out larger trials. They hope to have the app clinically available within the next six months.<\/p>\n Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n By Jason Goodyer Published: Monday, 07 November 2022 at 12:00 am Tinnitus is the sensation of hearing ringing or buzzing in the ears that has no external source. It is thought to affect more than 7 million people in the UK. Around one in 20 people with tinnitus experience it to a distressing degree, leading […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":19717,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/11\/smartphone-based-therapy-offers-hope-for-sufferers-of-tinnitus.jpg",1200,796,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/11\/smartphone-based-therapy-offers-hope-for-sufferers-of-tinnitus-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/11\/smartphone-based-therapy-offers-hope-for-sufferers-of-tinnitus-300x199.jpg",300,199,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/11\/smartphone-based-therapy-offers-hope-for-sufferers-of-tinnitus-768x509.jpg",768,509,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/11\/smartphone-based-therapy-offers-hope-for-sufferers-of-tinnitus-1024x679.jpg",800,530,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/11\/smartphone-based-therapy-offers-hope-for-sufferers-of-tinnitus.jpg",1200,796,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/11\/smartphone-based-therapy-offers-hope-for-sufferers-of-tinnitus.jpg",1200,796,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Jason Goodyer Published: Monday, 07 November 2022 at 12:00 am Tinnitus is the sensation of hearing ringing or buzzing in the ears that has no external source. It is thought to affect more than 7 million people in the UK. Around one in 20 people with tinnitus experience it to a distressing degree, leading…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/19716"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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