Abstract
Somatic tinnitus is the ability to modulate the psychoacoustic features of tinnitus by somatic manoeuvres. The condition is still not fully understood and further identification of this subtype is essential, particularly for the purpose of establishing protocols for both its diagnosis and treatment. This study aimed to investigate the characteristics of somatic tinnitus within a large UK cohort using a largely unselected sample. We believe this to be relatively unique in comparison to current literature on the topic. This was investigated by using a total of 608 participant assessments from a set of recognised tinnitus and audiology measures. Results from a set of chi-square tests of association found that amongst the individuals with somatic tinnitus, a higher proportion had pulsatile tinnitus (different from heartbeat), were under the age of 40, reported variation in the loudness of their tinnitus and reported temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorder. The same pattern of results was confirmed using a multivariate analysis of the data based on logistic regression. These findings have strong implications towards the profiling of somatic tinnitus as a distinct subtype of general tinnitus.
Highlights
Tinnitus is a common, and sometimes very distressing, long-term health condition that involves the sensation of a sound without any explanation of an external auditory stimulus
The objective of the current study is to investigate the characteristics of somatic tinnitus within a UK cohort
Because of the meta-analytic nature of this study it was not subject to a specific ethical approval, but for the individual research studies themselves written informed consent had been given by all participants and the studies had been approved by the following local National Health Service (NHS) Ethics Committees: Derbyshire [26]; East Midlands—Nottingham 1 [27,28]; East Midlands—Nottingham 2 [29], and East Midlands—Derby (Mohamad, personal communication)
Summary
Sometimes very distressing, long-term health condition that involves the sensation of a sound without any explanation of an external auditory stimulus. Idiopathic subjective tinnitus is where the experience of the phantom sound is heard by the individual alone and there is no known etiology. This is by far the most common form of tinnitus representing 95–98% of all tinnitus presentations. The most common risk factor for developing a subjective tinnitus is an otological problem leading to hearing loss, but ototoxic medication, head injury, orofacial, rheumatological, endocrine and metabolic problems may play a causal role [1]. Objective tinnitus is the less common variant whereby an observer can hear the tinnitus. Often a medical diagnosis can be made which determines an PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0126254. Often a medical diagnosis can be made which determines an PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0126254 May 21, 2015
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