Background: The inherent complexities of conditions such as tinnitus with cause and mechanism not known, presents a lack of high-level evidence to make an inference on the treatment approaches. A comprehensive review cannot be performed owing to an insufficient number of trials. Hence a scoping review approach was adopted to provide a broad overview of approaches for tinnitus management. Objective: To review the current evidence on prevalent treatment strategies used for tinnitus management and determine barriers and facilitators for the adoption of treatment approaches in developed and developing countries. Methods: The present scoping review was performed in compliance with the PRISMA ScR checklist. A literature search was carried out in PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar, and Cochrane databases. Articles published between 2010-2021 mentioning treatment strategies were included. However, therapies concentrating on symptomatic management were excluded. Evidence with the highest scientific hierarchy such as systematic reviews (SRs) and randomized-controlled trials (RCTs) was considered. The context for the ScR was study-region based and included studies from high-income and low and middle-income countries (HICs, LMICs) Results: A total of 20 records were included with 11 SRs and 9 RCTs. Non-pharmacological interventions demonstrated moderate efficacy, including transcranial magnetic- (TMS) and direct current stimulation (tDCS), hearing aids (combined with a sound generator or alone). No specific drug was found to have a mode of action about the target root cause due to a lack of clinical knowledge. Most of the trials used the same tools for tinnitus severity. Conclusion: Although several scoping reviews are published with an exclusive focus on individual therapies, authors recommend an umbrella review of systematic reviews to generate evidence-based practice consensus for tinnitus.
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