Remote vs Face to Face Tinnitus Therapy
Written by Carolyn Chiu
Edited by Inder Bhangoo
Jan 23rd 2022
Edited by Inder Bhangoo
Jan 23rd 2022
In the dead of night, you hear a faint ringing in one or both ears. You’re not sure where it's coming from, and it seems like you can still hear it when you plug your ears. If you have experienced this, you may be among the 15% of Americans afflicted with tinnitus. In severe cases, tinnitus persists as a constant annoyance that disrupts daily life and can lead to chronic mental and physical health problems. A clinical trial sought to examine how the effectiveness of virtual tinnitus therapy compares to that of face to face treatment.
This randomized trial in the United Kingdom divided ninety two participants with a 6:4 ratio of men to women into two equal groups. The test group would receive internet-based cognitive behavior therapy while the control group underwent individualized face to face care, the standard treatment for tinnitus. Internet-based cognitive behavior therapy, also known as iCBT, is a Swedish program that aims to address the limited accessibility of traditional face to face therapy due to transportation and clinician shortage. The trial compared tinnitus assessment measures reported at the beginning of the trial, immediately after, and two months later.
The iCBT group saw greater weekly reductions in tinnitus score (a measure of tinnitus severity via a symptoms questionnaire) and favorable results for insomnia, depression, hearing handicap, and cognitive failure assessment. However, these differences were not significant enough to assert iCBT’s effectiveness over face to face therapy. The trial concluded that no significant difference was found between the overall effectiveness of the two treatments, confirming the initial hypothesis that iCBT is at least equally effective to face to face therapy. As many health providers moved to internet-based services during the Covid-19 pandemic, the results of this trial demonstrate that remote healthcare does not have to compromise the quality of care.