Electrophysiological and psychological studies in tinnitus.

OBJECTIVES

Tinnitus can be accompanied by depression, anxiety, insomnia, problems with auditory perception and poor general and mental health. This work was designed to evaluate the cognitive and psychological status in tinnitus patients using different subjective and objective measures.

METHODS

This work included 40 patients complaining of tinnitus without any vestibular complaints. Those patients were compared with 40 healthy age and sex matched controls. All subjects were evaluated through: basic audiologic evaluation, electrophysiological test (P300), oculomotor tests (smooth-pursuit, optokinetic, gaze and saccadic eye movements) and psychological evaluation (Hamilton depression and anxiety scales, Mini Mental Status Examination and Trail making tests).

RESULTS

Patients with tinnitus showed abnormalities at both electrophysiological and psychological levels when compared with normal subjects.

CONCLUSION

This study provides evidences that different pathological mechanisms are involved in tinnitus generation which are more extensive than we thought.