Effects of different personalised sound therapies in tinnitus patients with hearing loss of various extents.

BACKGROUND Limited by difficulties in choosing the appropriate sound, sound therapies could only effectively restrain the development of tinnitus in some patients. Thus, individualised sound therapies are of urgent needs. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to determine the therapeutic effect of different individualised sound therapies in tinnitus patients complicated with hearing loss of various extents. RESEARCH DESIGN Participants were assigned to two different personalised sound therapies as counterbalanced by age and gender in this observational study. STUDY SAMPLE Ninety-two tinnitus patients with hearing loss admitted to our hospital from January 2018 to January 2020 were enrolled and evenly grouped as the observation group and the control group in accordance with the random number table. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSES Tinnitus characteristics of both the groups were determined before treatment. Patients from the observation group received pure tone sound therapy composed of 7 octaves (0.125, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4 and 8 kHz) based on frequencies determined from their tinnitus characteristics. The control group received pure tone sound therapy composed of 9 one-third octaves based on their tinnitus characteristics. RESULTS The observation group had better therapeutic effects than that in the control group (91.30% vs 73.91%, P < .05). After 1 week, and 1- to 3-month treatment, patients in the observation group all presented with decreased tinnitus handicap, decreased tinnitus volume and improved sleep quality compared with the control group (P < .05). CONCLUSION This study found that both personalised sound therapies were effective in tinnitus treatment while 7-octave pure tone adjusted from tinnitus frequencies were more promising in decreasing tinnitus handicap and tinnitus volume.