Psychoeducational Intervention Treatment for Tinnitus

Introduction: Tinnitus is a common impairment in the general population. In the United States (U.S.), almost 30 million people, or about 10% of the population, have tinnitus. Of individuals with chronic tinnitus, about 20% have symptoms that are clinically significant. While many interventions purport to promote coping strategies for tinnitus-related problems, few studies directly target and measure coping outcomes. Coping strategies are cognitive, affective, and behavioral attempts to master a disability or an impairment like tinnitus. The present study proposes two group psychoeducational interventions for tinnitus.

Method: 45 individuals with tinnitus were allocated into one of the following: Coping Effectiveness Training-Tinnitus group (CET-T), or Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) group, or a Usual Care (UC) group. The participants were treated for a period of 1 month and followed-up for a period of another month, using questionnaires assessing the handicap caused by the tinnitus and their coping abilities.

Results: The THI-H (Tinnitus Handicap Inventory, Hebrew version) score was lower in the CET-T and the ACT groups. Coping scores were better in those two groups than in the UC group. No difference was found between the two types of interventions.

Conclusions: The findings indicate that tinnitus was less of an impairment to individuals over time for both of the intervention groups, and that the coping abilities of the participants were improved. This may have implications on treatment tinnitus, leading to a better support for patients with tinnitus.