Tinnitus Treatment

There are generally four ways to acquire hyperacusis treatment: medication, therapy, devices, and surgery. If you want to know more about each of these treatment methods, read on.

Hyperacusis Treatment: Medication

In some occasions, intake of medications can help lessen the hyperacusis symptoms. Nonetheless, it’s not always advisable to take medications because of the unimpressive results and adverse side effects they are associated with. Anyhow, medications for anxiety and depression are often help patients deal with the psychological fallout of this condition. If you still opt to treat your hyperacusis with medications, you may choose from any of the following:

• lorazepam or klonazepam in low dosage

• antidepressants particularly those from SSRI family

• Anti-migraine medicines, such as, verapamil, topiramate, tricyclics, and beta-blockers

• Anti-seizure drugs such as oxcarbazapine

• Baclofen

Anti-anxiety and antidepressants are really great in reducing depression, anxiety, or obsessive thinking caused by hyperacusis. Anti-migraine drugs prevent migraine which again is caused by hyperacusis. Anti-seizure drugs are used to treat irritable neural pathways while Baclofen has been useful in the reduction of responses in the brainstem hyperacusis.

Hyperacusis Treatment through Ear Devices:

The devices commonly used for hyperacusis treatment include ear plugs and sound generators/maskers. Ear plugs are used to decrease the amount of sounds a person is exposed to. However, some people believe that the prolonged use of ear devices can only increase hyperacusis. It is believed that noise exposure is habituating and noise reduction can reduce the possibility of habituation. However, just like the effect of sunglasses when worn on a bright day, ear devices can be very helpful. Similarly, electronic noise suppression devices may also be used except that they are not that effective in lessening the high frequencies compared to the passive methods. Sound generators/maskers function by conditioning the brain and the nervous system to be more tolerant to the sound. They look like hearing aid but are readjusted on a monthly basis to accomplish desensitization gradually.

Therapy as Hyperacusis Treatment:

One of the therapies used for hyperacusis treatment is the Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT), a mixture of the use of sound generators and psychotherapy. In fact, this is a very popular approach these days and while it is really helpful, one must know that considerable time commitment is required.

Psychological therapy may also be used to acquire hyperacusis treatment as hyperacusis is often accompanied with depression or anxiety. In this instance, a consultation with a psychiatrist or psychologist or any expert on this field can be really helpful. If you will learn how to ignore hyperacusis rather than stress yourself about it, then you can surely handle your condition better. It also helps to take medications that can treat obsessive compulsive disorder.

Surgery as Hyperacusis Treatment:

Surgery is not a common form of hyperacusis treatment. Nevertheless, it is often advised to people with really useless hearing.

As of now, only the methods mentioned above are used for hyperacusis treatment. They may not be a lot but they are enough to keep people with hyperacusis hopeful that it’s possible to get their life back to normal.