Sübjektif tinnitus tanı ve tedavisine yönelik klinik araştırmalarda metodoloji: Ulusal protokol önerisi

Aim: Being a common condition causing significant effect on quality of life increases the importance of determining the severity of subjective tinnitus anditstreatment. The most common method to measure the severity of tinnitus and to assess the degree of effects is questionnaires. While tinnitus is a multifactorial disorder, there might be need for more questionnaires to evaluate the various complaints in every single patient. The response to treatment is also assessed through questionnaires. Materials and Methods: The differences in questionnaires challenge the comparison of studies conducted in different centers. The most commonly used tinnitus questionnaires are investigated and the most important aspects of treatment and follow-up protocols are highlighted. Results: Lacking evidence on efficacy of treatment methods and differences in evaluating the response to treatment jeopardize with determining an efficient treatment method. Determining patients with a high psychological stress impact is effective in getting positive results from treatment. Conclusion: Sociocultural structure of a country should be taken into consideration, when developing and/or translating questionnaires. We aimed to propose a protocol which might be suitable for our country's structure and for use in multi-centered studies and also aim to make a call for a national consensus protocol.