Cochrane ENT has participated in two James Lind Alliance (JLA) Priority Setting Partnerships (PSP). The partnerships in Tinnitus and Aspects of Balance brought together patients, carers and clinicians to identify and prioritise the top 10 uncertainties, or 'unanswered questions', about the effects of treatments that they agree are the most important.
Tinnitus: Top 10
- What management strategies are more effective than a usual model of audiological care in improving outcomes for people with tinnitus?
- Is cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), delivered by audiology professionals, effective for people with tinnitus? Here comparisons might be with usual audiological care or CBT delivered by a psychologist.
- What management strategies are more effective for improving tinnitus-related insomnia than a usual model of care?
- Do any of the various available complementary therapies provide improved outcome for people with tinnitus compared with a usual model of care?
- What type of digital hearing aid or amplification strategy provides the most effective tinnitus relief?
- What is the optimal set of guidelines for assessing children with tinnitus?
- How can tinnitus be effectively managed in people who are deaf or who have a profound hearing loss?
- Are there different types of tinnitus and can they be explained by different mechanisms in the ear or brain?
- What is the link between tinnitus and hyperacusis (over-sensitivity to sounds)?
- Which medications have proven to be effective in tinnitus management compared with placebo?
The following question was carefully deliberated and just fell outside of the top 10, however participants in the final meeting felt it was worthy of a special mention:
Does stem cell technology (e.g. for hair cell regeneration) provide an effective pipeline to develop new medical interventions for treating tinnitus?