Seidman M D, Jacobson G P
Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, Michigan, USA.
Otolaryngol Clin North Am. 1996 Jun;29(3):455-65.
The study of a disorder such as tinnitus is fraught with difficulties. Tinnitus, like pain, is a subjective symptom. The problem is compounded because several different mechanisms must operate to cause the persistent sensation of tinnitus. Therefore, it is difficult to measure objectively any improvements in the condition. For example, it has been reported previously that sectioning the eighth cranial nerve does not abolish tinnitus in a majority of patients; therefore, central mechanisms must act to preserve the tinnitus. Finally, we know that tinnitus can occur in a host of conditions other than ototoxicity, aging, and noise exposure. Other conditions that may produce tinnitus are migraine headache with auditory aura, temporal lobe seizures, and head injuries. Therefore, it is naive to conceptualize that tinnitus is a disorder with a unitary origin and a unitary "cure".
对耳鸣这类病症的研究充满了困难。耳鸣与疼痛一样，是一种主观症状。问题因以下情况而变得更加复杂：必须有几种不同的机制共同作用才能引发持续的耳鸣感觉。因此，很难客观地衡量病情的任何改善情况。例如，此前已有报道称，切断第八对脑神经并不能消除大多数患者的耳鸣；因此，中枢机制必定在维持耳鸣。最后，我们知道耳鸣可能出现在除耳毒性、衰老和噪声暴露之外的许多情况中。其他可能产生耳鸣的情况包括伴有听觉先兆的偏头痛、颞叶癫痫发作和头部受伤。因此，将耳鸣视为具有单一病因和单一“治愈方法”的病症是天真的想法。
