Morbidities in Tinnitus

Tinnitus is a very common complain and affects 7 % of population and has been associated with a range of physical and emotional disorders (Hallam et al. in Br J Clin Psychol 27: 213–222, 1988). Hence to understand the distress caused by tinnitus and its relationship with the nature of tinnitus so as to suggest the appropriate treatment, there is the need to study the impact of tinnitus of a group of tinnitus sufferers. This study could be done on the basis of verbal description of tinnitus, Audiological measurement of tinnitus and psychological characteristics of tinnitus in terms of distress, anxiety, depression and disturbance of personality, to understand the morbidities in tinnitus. Fifty adults in the age range of 18–60 years with subjective tinnitus with bilateral normal hearing or pure SNHL ranging from mild to moderately severe were selected. An audiological profile of each subject was prepared on the basis of brief case history of subject, otoscopic examination, pure tone audiometry, impedance audiometry, frequency (pitch) and intensity (loudness) of tinnitus. A psychometric profile was developed by using Tinnitus Reaction Questionnaire and Nature of Tinnitus Questionnaire. These questionnaires were translated and adopted in Hindi language after appropriate standardization procedure. 60 % reported that they do not have any idea regarding probable cause of their tinnitus. 74 % subjects of this study reported that there is no fluctuation in the pitch of their tinnitus. However, 68 % reported loudness of tinnitus is fluctuating. A weak co-relation has been seen between traditional audiological measures like pitch matching, loudness matching and subject’s description of pitch and loudness of tinnitus. There was a significant correlation between the impact of tinnitus and disturbance of sleep caused by it with increase in depression and anger (0.483). However, no significant co-relation was seen between distressed caused by tinnitus and duration of tinnitu