The Hear-Ring Lab, Department of Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences, Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY, USA.
The Long Island AuD Consortium, Garden City, NY, USA.
Int J Audiol. 2022 Oct;61(10):868-875. doi: 10.1080/14992027.2021.1978568. Epub 2021 Sep 22.
Sound therapy (ST) and stress reduction regimens have been successfully used to manage tinnitus. Virtual reality (VR) has been used to manage chronic conditions like intractable pain. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether the use of VR in conjunction with ST revealed additional improvements in tinnitus attributes as compared to ST alone.
This study was a randomised controlled trial (RCT) with a cross-over design. All participants received two interventions - ST alone (control) and ST with VR stimuli (experimental). ST consisted of fractal tones while VR stimuli comprised of nature videos presented via VR goggles. A multilevel mixed-effects linear regression model was used to estimate the intervention effect.
Twenty adults with subjective, continuous, chronic tinnitus participated in the study.
After adjusting for period and baseline tinnitus loudness, significant improvements were observed in tinnitus loudness and Tinnitus Functional Index scores. Although not statistically significant, mean minimum masking levels were lower after the experimental intervention.
Study participants benefitted from the use of VR in conjunction with ST in a laboratory setting. Additional effectiveness trials and blinded RCTs will be needed before validating the use of VR for tinnitus management in clinical settings.
声音疗法 (ST) 和减压方案已成功用于管理耳鸣。虚拟现实 (VR) 已被用于管理慢性疾病，如难治性疼痛。本研究旨在探讨与单独使用 ST 相比，在 ST 中加入 VR 是否会对耳鸣属性有额外的改善。
这是一项随机对照试验 (RCT)，采用交叉设计。所有参与者都接受了两种干预措施——单独使用 ST（对照组）和使用 ST 加 VR 刺激（实验组）。ST 包括分形音，而 VR 刺激包括通过 VR 护目镜呈现的自然视频。使用多级混合效应线性回归模型来估计干预效果。
20 名患有主观、持续、慢性耳鸣的成年人参加了这项研究。
在调整了周期和基线耳鸣响度后，耳鸣响度和耳鸣功能指数评分均有显著改善。虽然没有统计学意义，但实验干预后最小掩蔽水平的平均值较低。
在实验室环境中，研究参与者从 ST 与 VR 的联合使用中受益。在验证 VR 在临床环境中用于耳鸣管理的有效性之前，还需要进行额外的有效性试验和盲法 RCT。
