Nine Acute Cases of Psychogenic Hearing Loss.

Psychogenic hearing loss sometimes occurs acutely, and differential diagnosis from other types of acute hearing loss is necessary. Among the patients referred to our hospital for psychogenic hearing loss between 1982 and 1993, nine were acute cases (3 males and 6 females) and six of them were bilateral. Their ages ranged from 7 to 27 years (mean, 13 years).Seven of the nine had had some episodes of disturbed hearing before the acute onset ; three had been exposed to noises such as loud brass band music or loud voices, and four had been injured on the head. In the other two, hearing loss occurred suddenly without previous episodes. Therefore, differentiation from noise-induced hearing loss, traumatic inner ear disturbance and idiopathic sudden hearing loss was needed.The differential diagnosis was made using Bekesy audiogram, threshold of stapedial reflex (SR), speech audiometry and auditory brain stem response (ABR). ABR was especially useful to determine the hearing threshold. In addition, details of the patients' present illness, past history and family history were useful.