Pilot study of a smartphone-based tinnitus therapy using structured counseling and sound therapy: A multiple-baseline design with ecological momentary assessment

Abstract

Tinnitus affects a considerable part of the population and develops into a severe disorder in some sufferers. App-based interventions are able to provide low-threshold, cost-effective, and location-independent care for tinnitus patients. Therefore, we developed a smartphone app combining structured counseling with sound therapy and conducted a pilot study to evaluate treatment compliance and symptom improvement (trial registration: DRKS00030007). Outcome variables were Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) measured tinnitus distress and loudness and Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI) at baseline and final visit. A multiple-baseline design with a baseline phase (only EMA) followed by an intervention phase (EMA and intervention) was applied. 21 patients with chronic tinnitus (≥ 6 months) were included. Overall compliance differed between modules (EMA usage: 79% of days, structured counseling: 72%, sound therapy: 32%). The THI score improved from baseline to final visit indicating a large effect (Cohens d = 1.1). Tinnitus distress and loudness did not improve significantly from baseline phase to the end of intervention phase. However, 5 of 14 (36%) improved clinically meaningful in tinnitus distress (ΔDistress ≥ 10) and 13 of 18 (72%) in THI score (ΔTHI ≥ 7). The positive relationship between tinnitus distress and loudness weakened over the course of the study. A trend but no level effect for tinnitus distress could be demonstrated by a mixed effect model. The improvement in THI was strongly associated with the improvement scores in EMA of tinnitus distress (r = -0.75; 0.86). These results indicate that app-based structured counseling combined with sound therapy is feasible, has an impact on tinnitus symptoms and reduces distress for several patients. In addition, our data suggest that EMA could be used as a measurement tool to detect changes in tinnitus symptoms in clinical trials as has already been shown in other areas of mental health research.

Eye Movement Desensitization Protocol for Urge to Reduce Scratching Behaviour in Patients with Prurigo Nodularis: A Pilot Study

“…Again, an important observation is the improvement in scratching behaviour prior to the intervention. This occurrence has been documented in numerous pharmacological and behavioural studies before, yet its implications and even more intriguingly, how we can leverage it to our benefit in daily practice, must be the subject of further research ( 17 ). Improvement in health prior to the intervention could be attributed to factors such as self-monitoring and anticipatory effects (e.g.…”

The Effectiveness of a Smartphone Application for Tinnitus Relief

“…In the era of the fourth industrial evaluation and digital therapeutics, there has been increasing research interest in smartphone-or internet-based tinnitus management [13][14][15][16][17]. Numerous tinnitus applications have been created and they range from those that utilize notched music or band-pass noise for tinnitus management to those that offer relaxation exercises, attentional focus exercises, and diary-writing features [12,18].…”

“…In a pilot study conducted by Engelke et al (2023), they developed an application for tinnitus sound therapy and provided counseling to the participants for 12 weeks. Significant improvement in tinnitus was observed at the end of the 12-week period [16]. Although pre-existing studies have shown a positive impact of smartphone-based tinnitus management, the scientific evidence as to the effectiveness of the smartphone application in tinnitus relief in the long term and the participants' perspectives towards the smartphone-based tinnitus management is underwhelming [13,14].…”