Does DBS Help With Tinnitus?

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a promising treatment to suppress tinnitus.

Preclinical and clinical evidence suggests that in multiple regions of the auditory pathway that DBS can have an alleviating effect on tinnitus, according to a study published in Audiology Research.

“A small minority of tinnitus sufferers have a blood vessel or a tumor near the auditory nerve, but in 99% of the cases, there’s no physical reason in the ear that we know of,” explains Jana Devos, a research psychologist and doctoral student in neuroscience.

She adds that sufferers going deaf can still hear their tinnitus. “We can see that sufferers have different brain activities; we’re just not sure of the mechanism and reason.”

These findings are based on animal studies, and "the method for DBS is at least not fully translatable to humans." However, “DBS has already been used for the tremors of Parkinson’s disease but this is the first trial focusing on the auditory system,” Devos notes.

People with tinnitus want the research to go forward. The study authors write:

"A questionnaire study showed that about 20% of general tinnitus patients are willing to undergo DBS surgery in case of a 50% chance of successful treatment. The willingness increased with the number of therapies already tried.

"Further, patients would be willing to pay 20 times their monthly income to be treated. Most patients would accept a risk of mild side effects, and almost half of the patients would accept a risk of severe side effects.

"A caveat in patient selection is that desperate patients might see this experimental treatment as a last resort and rush through the informed consent."

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