[How is tinnitus influenced by cochlear implantation?] / Wie wird der Tinnitus durch eine Kochlearimplantation beeinflusst?

INTRODUCTION: Tinnitus is one of the most common symptoms in patients with profound sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL). Cochlear implantation (CI), which has become a standard method to rehabilitate profound SNHL, has been also observed to effect tinnitus in many cases. In the Salzburg Cochlear Implant Center,more than 230 profoundly deaf patients, mainly children,have been provided with CI between 1992 and 2000. PATIENTS AND METHOD: In a retrospective study, 39 adult patients were assessed by questionnaire for the frequency of tinnitus, subjective loudness sensitivity, and tinnitusspecific impairment before and after the CI. RESULTS: Before implantation 26 patients had tinnitus, while 24 patients had the same symptoms after the CI. In 13 patients (50%) tinnitus remained unaffected by the operation. Intensity of tinnitus decreased in seven patients (26.7%), and in four patients (15.4%) it completely disappeared after the implantation.However, intensity increased in two patients (7.7%), and in another two patients, who had not experienced tinnitus before, it began first after the implantation. No correlation has been found between the daily using time of CI and the tinnitus impairment.Also no effect of tinnitus was seen on postoperative hearing assessed by Freiburg numbers, monosyllables, and Innsbruck sentence test scores. CONCLUSION: CI significantly reduces the subjectively perceived impairment, although the reduction in the subjectively perceived loudness of the tinnitus is not significant.

Are demographic and socioeconomic factors predictive for perceived tinnitus impairment?

Patients suffering from chronic tinnitus were analyzed to examine whether tinnitus impairments can be predicted by demographic and socioeconomic factors. For this purpose, subjective tinnitus complaints were measured in 153 patients using the tinnitus impairment questionnaire (THI-12) that distinguishes between emotional-cognitive and functional-communicative factors. Age, gender, marital status, and education levels were assessed and treated as predictive variables. In computing canonical correlations, only the level of education served as a significant emotional-cognitive predictor for tinnitus impairment. Patients with lower education demonstrated impairments in the emotional-cognitive domain that were more marked than those in higher-educated people. The results indicated that demographic and socioeconomic variables have no predictive value for tinnitus impairments, with the exception of a person's level of education.

[How is tinnitus influenced by cochlear implantation?]. / Wie wird der Tinnitus durch eine Kochlearimplantation beeinflusst?

INTRODUCTION: Tinnitus is one of the most common symptoms in patients with profound sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL). Cochlear implantation (CI), which has become a standard method to rehabilitate profound SNHL, has been also observed to effect tinnitus in many cases. In the Salzburg Cochlear Implant Center,more than 230 profoundly deaf patients, mainly children,have been provided with CI between 1992 and 2000. PATIENTS AND METHOD: In a retrospective study, 39 adult patients were assessed by questionnaire for the frequency of tinnitus, subjective loudness sensitivity, and tinnitus-specific impairment before and after the CI. RESULTS: Before implantation 26 patients had tinnitus, while 24 patients had the same symptoms after the CI. In 13 patients (50%) tinnitus remained unaffected by the operation. Intensity of tinnitus decreased in seven patients (26.7%), and in four patients (15.4%) it completely disappeared after the implantation.However, intensity increased in two patients (7.7%), and in another two patients, who had not experienced tinnitus before, it began first after the implantation. No correlation has been found between the daily using time of CI and the tinnitus impairment.Also no effect of tinnitus was seen on postoperative hearing assessed by Freiburg numbers, monosyllables, and Innsbruck sentence test scores. CONCLUSION: CI significantly reduces the subjectively perceived impairment, although the reduction in the subjectively perceived loudness of the tinnitus is not significant.

Ipsapirone in the treatment of bulimia nervosa: an open pilot study.

Seventeen women who met the criteria for bulimia nervosa (DSM-III-R) were treated for 4 weeks in an open trial with ipsapirone, a partial 5-HT1A agonist. Bulimic symptoms diminished in 66.6% of the patients after only 1 week of treatment, 93.3% showed a reduction of more than 50% of weekly binge eating attacks after 4 weeks. The mean frequency of binges was reduced by 81% at endpoint. Ipsapirone was well tolerated.