TRT: Tinnitus Retraining Therapy. What Is It and Does It Work?

rain on roof; TRT - tinnitus retaining therapy - concept

Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT) was developed more than 30 years ago by neurophysiologist Pawel J. Jastreboff, Ph.D., Sc.D., MBA.

TRT uses a combination of counseling and sound therapy to help patients get used to their tinnitus. Low-level, steady noise generators that are worn in or behind the ear provide a background sound that helps reduce the perceived loudness of tinnitus.

According to Jastreboff, when a person is habituated to their tinnitus, it means that they are no longer aware of the tinnitus noise — except when they focus their attention on it. And even when they focus on it, the tinnitus is not annoying or bothersome.

"This therapy can be compared to the sound of raindrops falling on a roof being noticed when it first starts raining, but going unnoticed and put out of mind after some time," write the staff at Hear-It.

They say that the psychological part of TRT is made up of deep relaxation exercises and stress management to teach patients to ignore the tinnitus noise.

"The goal is the elimination of the patient's anxiety, so that the tinnitus is no longer perceived as a danger, thus diverting concentration away from the tinnitus noise. The end goal is complete habituation of the noise," they explain.

Jastreboff says TRT delivers a success rate of 80 percent, success being when tinnitus does not affect the patient either at all or in a significant manner.

While some patients see improvement quickly, Jastreboff tells Treble Health that "on average, patients are seeing clear improvement in three months." Those results, he adds, either remain stable or improve over time, with no relapses.

TRT can be expensive, running into the thousands of dollars, especially if results are slow in coming. And you'll likely have to pay for it yourself. According to CareCredit, "tinnitus retraining therapy is usually not covered by private medical insurance or Medicare because it is considered investigational or an experimental therapy."

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