Schlee Winfried, Neff Patrick, Simoes Jorge, Langguth Berthold, Schoisswohl Stefan, Steinberger Heidi, Norman Marie, Spiliopoulou Myra, Schobel Johannes, Hannemann Ronny, Pryss Rüdiger
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Regensburg, 93053 Regensburg, Germany.
URPP (University Research Priority Program) "Dynamics of Healthy Ageing", University of Zürich, 8006 Zürich, Switzerland.
J Clin Med. 2022 Mar 25;11(7):1825. doi: 10.3390/jcm11071825.
Tinnitus is an auditory phantom perception in the ears or head in the absence of a corresponding external stimulus. There is currently no effective treatment available that reliably reduces tinnitus. Educational counseling is a treatment approach that aims to educate patients and inform them about possible coping strategies. For this feasibility study, we implemented educational material and self-help advice in a smartphone app. Participants used the educational smartphone app unsupervised during their daily routine over a period of four months. Comparing the tinnitus outcome measures before and after smartphone-guided treatment, we measured changes in tinnitus-related distress, but not in tinnitus loudness. Improvements on the Tinnitus Severity numeric rating scale reached an effect size of 0.408, while the improvements on the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI) were much smaller with an effect size of 0.168. An analysis of user behavior showed that frequent and intensive use of the app is a crucial factor for treatment success: participants that used the app more often and interacted with the app intensively reported a stronger improvement in the tinnitus. Between study allocation and final assessment, 26 of 52 participants dropped out of the study. Reasons for the dropouts and lessons for future studies are discussed in this paper.
耳鸣是在没有相应外部刺激的情况下耳朵或头部出现的听觉幻觉。目前尚无可靠降低耳鸣的有效治疗方法。教育咨询是一种旨在教育患者并告知他们可能的应对策略的治疗方法。在这项可行性研究中，我们在一款智能手机应用程序中提供了教育材料和自助建议。参与者在四个月的日常活动中无监督地使用这款教育智能手机应用程序。通过比较智能手机引导治疗前后的耳鸣结果指标，我们测量了耳鸣相关痛苦程度的变化，但未测量耳鸣响度的变化。耳鸣严重程度数字评定量表的改善效果大小达到0.408，而耳鸣障碍量表（THI）的改善效果则小得多，效果大小为0.168。对用户行为的分析表明，频繁且大量使用该应用程序是治疗成功的关键因素：使用该应用程序更频繁且与应用程序互动更多的参与者报告耳鸣改善更明显。在研究分配和最终评估之间，52名参与者中有26人退出了研究。本文讨论了退出原因及对未来研究的启示。
