Gender Comparison of Psychological Comorbidities in Tinnitus Patients – Results of a Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Background: In the last decades, research focused on gender-related features in patients with tinnitus has often led to controversial results. The complex clinical picture of tinnitus patients often consists of an interdependent relationship between audiological symptoms and co-occurrent psychological disorders, which can complicate the diagnostic evaluation. Methods: Therefore, we studied 107 patients with tinnitus, investigating their psychological comorbidities in the light of gender differences. All patients were evaluated with ENT/audiological and psychological examination to consider presence/absence, type and gender distribution of psychopathological comorbidities. Patients completed questionnaires on tinnitus distress (Tinnitus Handicap Inventory, THI), anxiety (Beck Anxiety Inventory, BAI), depression (Beck Depression Inventory, BDI), metacognition (Metacognition Questionnaire-30, MCQ-30) and worry (Penn State Worry Questionnaire). The influence of gender on the relationship between tinnitus distress and psychological comorbidities was investigated with simple moderation analyses using the SPSS PROCESS macro. Results: The total sample included 65 male and 42 female patients (60.7 vs. 39.3%), matched for age and duration of tinnitus. We found no significant differences for tinnitus distress (THI total score, THI subscales) and MCQ-30 subscales, except for the control over thoughts, where men showed significantly higher scores than women (p = 0.045). Also, in our sample women showed significantly higher values for depression (BDI total score, p = 0.019), anxiety (BAI total score, p = 0.010) and worries (PSQW total score, p = 0.015). Moderation analyses revealed a significant influence of gender on the relationship of tinnitus distress with depression: higher scores of tinnitus distress were associated with significantly elevated levels of depression amongst men. No further gender influences could be observed in our sample. Discussion: In conclusion, our results indicate general gender differences for psychological comorbidities in tinnitus patients, with women reporting more depression, anxiety and worries. Men, on the other hand, showed a higher need to control their

Health-Related Quality of Life, Depressive Symptoms, Anxiety, and Somatization Symptoms in Male and Female Patients with Chronic Tinnitus

“…Overall, available evidence suggests that women tend to report higher HRQoL impairments in the context of psychological [38][39][40] or medical difficulties [41,42]. For chronic tinnitus, similar patterns emerged with women describing higher levels of emotional tension, psychological distress, and functional impairment [43][44][45][46], although these findings remain inconclusive [47,48]. To date, investigations on genderspecific differences in HRQoL for patients with chronic tinnitus are sparse.…”

Correlation Between Chronic Tinnitus Distress and Symptoms of Depression: A Systematic Review

“…The tinnitus distress was assessed by using different multi-item questionnaires as listed as follows: The THI was used in 20 out of 33 studies ( 42 , 52 – 54 , 56 , 58 , 60 – 66 , 68 – 70 , 74 ), TFI by seven ( 45 , 46 , 50 , 52 , 55 , 57 , 68 ), TQ by five ( 44 , 48 , 51 , 56 , 73 ), TRQ by two ( 49 , 71 ), mini-TQ by two ( 59 , 72 ), and both THQ ( 66 ) and TPFQ by one study ( 66 ). The depressive symptoms were also assessed by using different multi-item questionnaires.…”

“…The ascertainment of exposure was of good quality in these studies due to the use of the predefined TQs. The representativeness of the exposed cohort in the other four studies [Meric et al ( 49 ), Shin et al ( 66 ), Fioretti et al ( 54 ), and Wang et al ( 55 )] was also judged to be of poor quality because of other reasons. Meric et al ( 49 ) did not report about where the cohort was recruited from.…”

Standardized Clinical Profiling in Spanish Patients with Chronic Tinnitus

“…Stress [35,36], depression, and anxiety [35,37,38] have been widely related to tinnitus. In our study, one third of the individuals reported anxiety in the online survey and a quarter in the outpatient cohort.…”

“…Other studies have also described a higher frequency of hyperacusis in patients with tinnitus than individuals without tinnitus. It is well known that tinnitus is particularly common in patients with hyperacusis, and they can co-occur in patients with severe tinnitus [35,45]. In addition, both conditions are widely associated and could share a common pathophysiology [46].…”