Association between Insomnia and Depression in Tinnitus Patients

Abstract

Received September 29, 2014 Revised November 11, 2014 Accepted November 17, 2014 Address for correspondence Jae Yong Byun, MD, PhD Department of OtolaryngologyHead and Neck Surgery, School of Medicine, Kyung Hee University, 892 Dongnam-ro, Gangdong-gu, Seoul 134-727, Korea Tel +82-2-440-6237 Fax +82-2-440-6296 E-mail otorhino512@naver.com Background and ObjectivesZZAbout one third of all people experience tinnitus in their life. And insomnia is the second most common symptom in tinnitus patients, following hearing disturbance. The aim of this study was to define the influence of insomnia on the clinical features of tinnitus patients and to assess the relation of tinnitus to insomnia and depression. Subjects and MethodZZThe consecutive 197 patients with tinnitus were enrolled from May 2012 to May 2013 for this study. All patients with tinnitus filled out the following questionnaire, Visual Analogue Scale, Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) for evaluating clinical features of tinnitus patients. Also we examined pure tone audiometry and tinnitogram for evaluating audiologic characteristics. ResultsZZWhen the insomnia was defined as more than five scores in PSQI, 46 of 197 patients had insomnia. Loudness of tinnitus was significantly higher in the tinnitus patients with insomnia group when compared to those of the tinnitus without insomnia group (p=0.018). The score of THI and BDI were significantly higher in the tinnitus with insomnia group, too (p=0.003, <0.001, respectively). A strong correlation (r=0.616, p<0.001) was shown between THI score and BDI score in both groups. ConclusionZZIt appears, due to the high possibility that depression and insomnia are related in tinnitus patients with insomnia, that proper evaluations about sleep disturbance and depression of tinnitus patients are necessary to produce better therapeutic results. Korean J Otorhinolaryngol-Head Neck Surg 2015;58(5):313-7