{"id":2664,"date":"2024-01-18T03:00:39","date_gmt":"2024-01-18T03:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.villages.com.au\/?p=2664"},"modified":"2024-01-18T03:05:03","modified_gmt":"2024-01-18T03:05:03","slug":"tinnitus-can-be-debilitating-for-now-theres-hope-for-the-millions-affected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.villages.com.au\/lifestyle\/tinnitus-can-be-debilitating-for-now-theres-hope-for-the-millions-affected\/","title":{"rendered":"Tinnitus can be debilitating &#8211; now there\u2019s hope for the millions affected"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"2664\" class=\"elementor elementor-2664\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-5cc343e elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"5cc343e\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-935e273\" data-id=\"935e273\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-b2b319d elementor-drop-cap-yes elementor-drop-cap-view-stacked elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"b2b319d\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-settings=\"{&quot;drop_cap&quot;:&quot;yes&quot;}\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.15.0 - 20-08-2023 *\/\n.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-stacked .elementor-drop-cap{background-color:#69727d;color:#fff}.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-framed .elementor-drop-cap{color:#69727d;border:3px solid;background-color:transparent}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap{margin-top:8px}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap-letter{width:1em;height:1em}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap{float:left;text-align:center;line-height:1;font-size:50px}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap-letter{display:inline-block}<\/style>\t\t\t\t<p>A <strong>research team, led by the University of Auckland, New Zealand, has developed a chatbot therapy app that, in a published trial, reduced the impact of tinnitus in two-thirds of users in just weeks.<\/strong><\/p><p>Older adults are more likely to experience tinnitus because of age-related hearing loss and it can cause immense distress, about 20% of those affected are distressed by the noise, causing anxiety, depression and attention problems.<\/p><p>Tinnitus, or persistent ringing in the ears, does not have a single cause, but it is often related to hearing loss; a recent study suggests the condition may stem from hard-to-detect nerve damage. Tinnitus can sometimes go away on its own over time, but in other cases, it worsens, with chronic cases lasting three months or longer.<\/p><p>Various treatments can help people manage the condition, including cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), a specialised form of talk therapy that focuses on identifying and changing distorted thought patterns and their associated behaviors.<\/p><p>In the new study, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fauot.2023.1302215\/full\">published on 9 January in the journal Frontiers in Audiology and Otology<\/a>, researchers, including from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thewholisticmind.com\/\">Wholistic Brain and Mind<\/a>, in Bangalow, in the NSW Northern Rivers, tested whether 28 people with tinnitus would respond to a form of CBT delivered via an app called MindEar.<\/p><p>In some cases, the chatbot therapy was also paired with virtual sessions with a trained psychologist. With or without the psychologist, the participants saw noticeable improvement after using the app.<\/p><p>CBT does not change the sound of ringing that people with tinnitus experience, but it can help them adjust to and learn to live with the noise.<\/p><p>Both treatment groups had a notable reduction in distress related to tinnitus, according to the survey they used, known as the tinnitus functional index.<\/p><p>Immediately after treatment, the chatbot-only group had a 46% reduction in this measure, while the hybrid group had a 64% reduction. At the two-month follow-up, both groups saw a 64% reduction.<\/p><p><strong>Great news for anyone impacted by this serious condition.<\/strong><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A research team, led by the University of Auckland, New Zealand, has developed a chatbot therapy app that, in a published trial, reduced the impact of tinnitus in two-thirds of users in just weeks. Older adults are more likely to experience tinnitus because of age-related&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2665,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[72,18,70],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-lifestyle","category-retirement"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2664"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blog.villages.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2670,"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2664\/revisions\/2670"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}