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How Much Distress Does Tinnitus Cause? A New EEG Test Can Tell You.

Man with electrodes on scalp, with read-out on computer screen; EEG tests tinnitus distress concept

Tinnitus is a highly subjective condition. It's usually self-reported. Some people have mild cases, while others literally can't live with the constant buzzing, ringing or other noises it creates.

Enter electroencephalography (EEG), a technique that measures electrical activity in the brain using small electrodes placed on the scalp. Easier and cheaper to use than the standard functional magnetic resonance imaging test, a new EEG procedure can accurately measure the distress caused by tinnitus, writes Jeff Renaud in the Medical Xpress.

Because there are no objective markers for tinnitus, diagnosis and treatments are complicated, write Andrea Piarulli and fellow researchers in a study published in Brain Communications. However, "the combination of EEG with sophisticated classification procedures may reveal biomarkers that can identify tinnitus and accurately differentiate different levels of distress experienced by patients."

This new procedure can accurately:
  1. Distinguish tinnitus patients from healthy controls.
  2. Distinguish tinnitus patients with low and high distress levels.
"The high accuracies of both classifiers are very promising, as they emphasize the significance of electrophysiological features as markers of tinnitus and distress," the researchers write.

So what's it all mean?

According to Piarulli et al.: "The first classifier can serve as a useful diagnostic tool, as it introduces an objective assessment of a disorder that is currently diagnosed using subjective self-report. At the same time, the ability to classify distress can serve as an important prognostic tool that can monitor treatment efficacy."

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