A Cross-Sectional Questionnaire Study of Tinnitus Awareness and Impact in a Population of Adult Cochlear Implant Users

Tinnitus suppression by means of cochlear implantation: does it affect cognition?

PURPOSE

Recent literature suggests that tinnitus can impact cognition, but results were varied due to a diversity in investigated aspects of cognition and utilized tests, as well as the possible influence of confounding factors. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of tinnitus loudness on cognition by use of a within-subjects design in patients with a cochlear implant (CI). In this population, tinnitus loudness can be modulated by switching the CI on or off as CI is known to highly suppress tinnitus.

METHODS

A total of 18 CI users completed two versions of the Repeatable Battery for Assessment of Neuropsychological Status for Hearing Impaired individuals (RBANS-H), once in unaided condition and once in best aided condition. Tinnitus suppression was defined as a difference in score on a visual-analogue scale (VAS) of at least one point out of ten between these two conditions.

RESULTS

No significant differences in RBANS-H scores were found between the suppression and no suppression group, nor for the suppression group alone. No significant correlations between tinnitus loudness and RBANS-H were found, neither for the suppression group alone, nor for the group as a whole.

CONCLUSION

The current study shows no significant effect of tinnitus loudness on cognition, which contradicts previous literature. This discrepancy could be explained by the use of a within-subjects design, which controls for confounding factors. Future research should include a larger and more diverse study sample to draw definitive conclusions on this topic.

Changes in Tinnitus Characteristics and Residual Inhibition following Cochlear Implantation: A Prospective Analysis

This study aims to explore the effect of cochlear implantation on tinnitus perception. A prospective study was conducted on 72 adult hearing-impaired patients to evaluate tinnitus perception before and after cochlear implantation, using standardized tinnitus questionnaires (the tinnitus sample case-history questionnaire, tinnitus functional index (TFI), and tinnitus handicap inventory (THI)). A large variety of demographic and hearing- and implant-related data was collected from patient hospital records to explore possible associations with the implantation effect. The prevalence of tinnitus complaints before implantation was 58.3%. The temporary induction or aggravation of tinnitus immediately after surgery was noted in 20% and 46.7% of patients, respectively. When evaluated 3 months after implantation, 60% of tinnitus patients experienced a clinically significant reduction in their complaints; most of the improvements were experienced immediately after activation of the implant. Only the scores for TFI and THI at baseline were found to be significantly correlated with a reduction in TFI scores after implantation. In 80% of tinnitus patients, the tinnitus remained suppressed for some time after taking off the device. The large subset of patients with residual inhibition supports the involvement of central pathophysiological processes in implantation effects on tinnitus, which are explored in this paper.

Effects of auditory rehabilitation with cochlear implant on tinnitus prevalence and distress, health-related quality of life, subjective hearing and psychological comorbidities: Comparative analysis of patients with asymmetric hearing loss (AHL), double-sided (bilateral) deafness (DSD), and single-sided (unilateral) deafness (SSD)

Introduction

Auditory rehabilitation with a cochlear implant (CI), in many cases, positively impacts tinnitus. However, it is unclear if the tinnitus-related benefit of CI is equal for patients with various indications for CI. Therefore, this study aimed to determine differences in tinnitus prevalence and distress, health-related quality of life, subjective hearing, perceived stress, and psychological comorbidities between patients diagnosed with asymmetric hearing loss (AHL), single-sided (unilateral) deafness (SSD), and double-sided (bilateral) deafness (DSD) before and six months after cochlear implantation.

Methods

One hundred-one CI candidates were included in this prospective study (39 AHL patients, 23 DSD patients, and 39 SSD patients). The patients completed questionnaires measuring tinnitus distress, health-related quality of life, subjective hearing, perceived stress, and psychological comorbidities before and 6 months after CI.

Results

The prevalence of tinnitus in the entire cohort (80.2% before CI) decreased 6 months after CI to 71.3%. The DSD group had the lowest tinnitus prevalence at both time points. The degree of tinnitus-induced distress decreased significantly in all three groups after CI. Differences in quality of life, subjective hearing, and psychological comorbidities between the groups at the study onset disappeared after CI. Significant correlations existed between anxiety, depression, and tinnitus distress in AHL and SSD but not in DSD patients before and after CI.

Discussion

Our results demonstrate significant differences between the three groups of CI candidates, which might affect the implantation outcome. These differences suggest a need for personalized psychological counseling during the auditory rehabilitation process, focusing on anxiety and depressive symptoms for SSD and AHL patients.

Use of open-ended questionnaires to examine the effects of tinnitus and its relation to patient-reported outcome measures

OBJECTIVE

The primary aim of the study was to examine the automated linguistic analysis of the open-ended problem (PQ) and life-effects (LEQ) questionnaires to understand the psychological effects of tinnitus.

DESIGN

The study used a cross-sectional design. Participants completed online questionnaires which included demographic questions, several standardised patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs), and two open-ended questions focussing on PQ and LEQ related to tinnitus. The response to open-ended questions was analysed using the Linguistic Inquiry Word Count (LIWC) software to identify the frequency of text on various linguistic dimensions relevant to tinnitus.

STUDY SAMPLE

336 individuals with tinnitus.

RESULTS

The study results point to two broad findings. First, although PQ and LEQ have some similarities with PROMs (e.g. the linguistic dimension negative emotions having a weak positive correlation with anxiety and depression), no correlation with the number of dimensions suggests that the open-ended questions identify additional elements that are not captured in PROMs. Second, more linguistic dimensions from the PQ correlate with PROMs compared to LEQ suggesting that the current PROMs are problem-oriented.

CONCLUSIONS

The study results support the idea that the use of open-ended questions in addition to PROMs may help optimise the efforts in examining the effects of chronic conditions such as tinnitus.

Health-Related Quality of Life Changes Associated With Hearing Loss

Importance

Utility is a single-value, preference-based measure of health-related quality of life that represents the desirability of a health state relative to being dead or in perfect health. Clinical, funding, and policy decisions rely on measured changes in utility. The benefit of hearing loss treatments may be underestimated because existing utility measures fail to capture important changes in quality of life associated with hearing loss.

Objective

To develop a comprehensive profile of items that describe how quality of life is associated with hearing loss and its treatments that can be used to generate hearing-related quality of life measures, including a novel utility measure.

Design, Setting, and Participants

This qualitative study, performed from August 1, 2018, to August 1, 2019, in tertiary referral centers, comprised a systematic literature review, focus groups, and semistructured interviews. The systematic review evaluated studies published from 1982 to August 1, 2018. Focus groups included 8 clinical experts experienced in the measurement, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of hearing loss. Semistructured interviews included 26 adults with hearing loss recruited from an institutional data set and outpatient hearing aid and otology clinics using stratified convenience sampling to include individuals of diverse ages, urban and rural residency, causes of hearing loss, severity of hearing loss, and treatment experience.

Main Outcomes and Measures

A set of items and subdomains that collectively describe the association of hearing loss with health-related quality of life.

Results

The literature search yielded 2779 articles from the MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane, PsycINFO, and CINAHL databases. Forty-five studies including 1036 individuals (age range, 18-84 years) were included. The focus group included 4 audiologists and 4 otologists. Hour-long semistructured interviews were conducted with 26 individuals (13 women; median age, 54 years; range, 25-83 years) with a broad range of hearing loss causes, configurations, and severities. From all 3 sources, a total of 125 items were generated and organized into 29 subdomains derived from the World Health Organization's International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health.

Conclusions and Relevance

The association of hearing loss with quality of life is multidimensional and includes subdomains that are not considered in the estimation of health utility by existing utility measures. The presented comprehensive profile of items can be used to generate or evaluate measures of hearing-related quality of life, including utility measures.

An exploration of psychological symptom-based phenotyping of adult cochlear implant users with and without tinnitus using a machine learning approach

The identification of phenotypes within populations with troublesome tinnitus is an important step towards individualizing tinnitus treatments to achieve optimal outcomes. However, previous application of clustering algorithms has called into question the existence of distinct tinnitus-related phenotypes. In this study, we attempted to characterize patients' symptom-based phenotypes as subpopulations in a Gaussian mixture model (GMM), and subsequently performed a comparison with tinnitus reporting. We were able to effectively evaluate the statistical models using cross-validation to establish the number of phenotypes in the cohort, or a lack thereof. We examined a cohort of adult cochlear implant (CI) users, a patient group for which a relation between psychological symptoms (anxiety, depression, or insomnia) and trouble tinnitus has previously been shown. Accordingly, individual item scores on the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS; 14 items) and the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI; 7 items) were selected as features for training the GMM. The resulting model indicated four symptom-based subpopulations, some primarily linked to one major symptom (e.g., anxiety), and others linked to varying severity across all three symptoms. The presence of tinnitus was self-reported and tinnitus-related handicap was characterized using the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory. Specific symptom profiles were found to be significantly associated with CI users' tinnitus characteristics. GMMs are a promising machine learning tool for identifying psychological symptom-based phenotypes, which may be relevant to determining appropriate tinnitus treatment.

Sound therapy for cochlear implant users with tinnitus

OBJECTIVE

Despite the positive effect of a cochlear implant (CI) on tinnitus in many patients, tinnitus remains a problem for a significant proportion of CI users. We investigated the acceptability and effect of sound therapy (a combination of natural background sounds and one concise tinnitus counselling session) on tinnitus and speech perception in CI users who still experienced tinnitus during CI use.

DESIGN AND STUDY SAMPLE

Thirty-two CI users (32-78 years) participated in phase 1: a test at the clinic to evaluate six background sounds provided by the sound processor. Eighteen out of the 32 CI users participated in phase 2: an optional take-home evaluation of 2 weeks without sound therapy, followed by 5 weeks with sound therapy, ending with an evaluation visit.

RESULTS

Thirty subjects (93.8%) found at least one background sound acceptable. In phase 2, a small improvement with sound therapy was found for tinnitus loudness, annoyance, and intrusiveness. 50% of the subjects subjectively reported benefit of sound therapy. Especially the sense of control on their tinnitus was highly appreciated. No detrimental effect on speech perception was observed.

CONCLUSION

The background sounds were acceptable and provided tinnitus relief in some CI users with tinnitus during CI use.