Emotional Disturbance in Hearing Clinic Patients

Abstract

A group of outpatients scheduled for hearing evaluation were screened for psychiatric morbidity using the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-30). There was an association between objective hearing loss and elevated GHQ-30 score. An association was also found between the presence of tinnitus and vestibular symptoms and elevated GHQ-30 score.

Hearing Handicap Predicts the Development of Depressive Symptoms After 3 Years in Older Community‐Dwelling Japanese

“…This community‐based cohort study showed that hearing handicap assessed according to the HHIE‐S is clearly associated with the future occurrence of depressive symptoms. In the literature, some cross‐sectional studies have indicated that hearing impairment is associated with mental state in clinical 7 or field settings, 8 but several recent cross‐sectional field studies in which hearing impairment was evaluated with audiometry found no association between hearing impairment and depressive symptoms 9,10 . To the best of the knowledge of the authors of the current article, this is the first longitudinal study to confirm that hearing handicap can predict depressive symptoms.…”

“…Reduced ability to understand speech affects an individual's psychosocial situation and hence contributes to social isolation, depression, and loss of self‐esteem, although studies vary in their assessments of associations between hearing impairment and mental health. Early studies indicated that hearing impairment has a strong association with depressive symptoms and dementia, 7,8 but more‐recent studies have failed to show any relationship between higher audiometric thresholds and depression 9,10 …”

Subjective, behavioral and psychophysiological effects of noise.

“…However, a lack of adequate reference groups in this work makes it impossible to distinguish the effects of noise from those of other possible contributory factors. The interpretation of the results from the occupational studies is also complicated by the fact that psychiatric symptoms are much more common among people with a hearing impairment than among the general population (92).…”

Sensory deficits and mental disorders of old age: causal or coincidental associations?

“…Singerman et al (1980) reported an association between psychiatric morbidity, as measured by the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) (Goldberg, 1978), and objective measures of hearing loss in a series of patients seen in a hearing clinic. The mean ages of their groups with hearing loss, however, ranged from 48 to 56 years.…”