Objective:

Tinnitus is the annoying sensation of sound perception without acoustic stimulus. Tinnitus retraining therapy (TRT) is the habituation therapy used for the management of chronic subjective tinnitus. The objective of the study is to describe TRT and to evaluate its efficacy in patients with subjective tinnitus.

Methods:

In total, 58 patients with tinnitus who did not respond to medications were enrolled in the TRT program. TRT included counseling as described in the neurophysiological model of tinnitus and sound therapy (aided or unaided) for six months. The tinnitus severity grade (TSG) 1–5, based on a validated tinnitus questionnaire score (TQS), and the visual analogue scale (VAS) score were documented before and after therapy.

Results:

Before TRT, 53 patients (91.3%) exhibited TSG 3–5, and the average VAS score was 6.7±2.1. After TRT for two months, 49 patients (84.4%) showed TSG 1–3, and the average VAS score was 3.2±2.4. After six months of TRT, most of the patients found remarkable improvement in the symptoms, and 51 patients (87.9%) exhibited TSG 1–2, and the average VAS score was 2.1±2.6. Statistically significant difference was found in TSG and VAS score before and after TRT. Statistically significant correlation was observed between TSG and VAS score.

Conclusion:

TRT is an useful approach for amelioration of tinnitus. TQS is a very effective, cheap, and easy method to help otologists to grade the patients as per the severity of symptoms.

Keywords: Tinnitus, tinnitus retraining therapy, treatment outcome, visual analogue scale