"'We cannot do anything about your tinnitus'. This is simply not true"

© Fotowerk - Fotolia.com

“The biggest mistake is to make tinnitus patients believe there is nothing we can do”, said Dr Pawel J. Jastreboff, father and creator of the Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT), interviewed by Audio Infos Spain. Marking the 25th anniversary of one of the most successful tinnitus therapies, Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT), Jastreboff, from Emory University (Altanta, U.S.), was in Spain last fall to take part in the “Tinnitus and its treatment with hearing aids” congress, organized by GAES as part of the National Congress of the Spanish Society of Otolaryngology and cervicofacial pathologies (SEORL). The event was attended by over 200 professionals and was an opportunity to stress the need to address this condition with every available method, given that it affects 4 million people in Spain.

Pawel J. Jastreboff. It is a matter of retraining the brain. To help patients understand this, I often use the following example. You have learned to drive on the right. Now imagine that you move to New Zealand for work, and you have to learn to drive on the left. You would be a dangerous driver because, even though you would be fully aware of what you need to do, you would not manage because driving is controlled by your subconscious brain. However, you can teach your brain to drive on the left and after a while, you will be able to do it perfectly well. The problem with tinnitus is that the signal originates in the auditory system and then spreads to the limbic system. TRT tries to retrain the brain by limiting the connections between the auditory system and the other systems of the brain so that the signals are restricted to the auditory system and do not contaminate the others.

Pawel J. Jastreboff, during his lecture at the Spanish ENT congress


Audio Infos. How did you build this model?

P.J.J. It was by chance. I was studying the ear, balance and the cerebellum. I went to Yale University to study the mechanisms of the sense of smell and after one year, a young researcher asked me to help design an animal model to improve tinnitus. I thought this was impossible, because if we were unable to ascertain evidence of tinnitus in human beings, how could we do so in rats? I shared my concerns about his approach, and suggested we could get results with a behavioral method. He said “here is the money, here is the lab, go ahead”. So I did.

Urgent change sought by final report on “deeply concerning picture” of Scotland’s NHS audiology services
Urgent change sought by final report on “deeply concerning picture” of Scotland’s NHS audiology services

 

care

georgeclerk - iStock

An Independent Review of poor care in Scottish NHS audiology has been drawing a strong reaction from across professional guidance and patient support bodies.

BSHAA reworks its name... but keeps same initials
BSHAA reworks its name... but keeps same initials

 

PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS

© BSHAA - Rob Donnan speaks at the most recent BSHAA annual general meeting

The UK professional association BSHAA has announced a subtle change in its name to better reflect its mission and objectives. The hitherto denominated British Society of Hearing Aid Audiologists now changes those final two words of its name to and Audiology, thus keeping the same five-initial abbreviation: BSHAA.

Starkey experts explain AI at October’s EUHA Congress
Starkey experts explain AI at October’s EUHA Congress

 
 

conferences

© PW/Starkey       Starkey tech and innovation leaders, respectively, Achin Bhowmik and Dave Fabry

How far has AI technology penetrated modern hearing aids? And how far might it go in the future?

Noise wakes up Lords to call for regulation of “neglected health hazard”
Noise wakes up Lords to call for regulation of “neglected health hazard”

 

noise

© aniaostudio - iStock

A House of Lords committee has called for the setting up of an expert advisory group to quantify the aggregate health burden of noise pollution, a likely outcome being the establishment of targets and a framework for regulation to reduce the overall burden of disease from noise.

UK hearing instrument sales slip from Q1 high as NHS buy-in drops 25%
UK hearing instrument sales slip from Q1 high as NHS buy-in drops 25%

 

hearing aid sales

© BIHIMA Market size UK

Q2 2023 figures from the British Irish Hearing Instrument Manufacturers Association (BIHIMA) underline the mercurial character of the UK hearing market, one dominated by orders from the NHS...and those orders fell dramatically in the second quarter of this year.

GN CEO steps down as group shifts to "fully integrated innovation powerhouse" governance structure
GN CEO steps down as group shifts to

 

manufacturers

© PW      Gitte Aabo, making way for the "One GN" team.

The Danish hearing giant GN Group has announced a management shake-up that will see a compact executive across its businesses led by Peter Karlstrome ras CEO, who takes over from the departing Gitte Aabo.

3M to pay $6bn to settle combat earplugs case
3M to pay $6bn to settle combat earplugs case

 

litigation

© gorodenkoff - iStock

In an attempt to wrap up one of the largest mass damages cases in US legal history, the conglomerate 3M has agreed a $6bn settlement with over 250,000 military veterans who claimed earplugs provided to them for combat failed to protect them from hearing loss and tinnitus.

Company Directory

New products

Sky, Naída, and CROS extend Phonak's Lumity range to kids, teenagers and adults with severe-to-profound loss Sky, Naída, and CROS extend Phonak's Lumity range to kids, teenagers and adults with severe-to-profound loss

 

hearing aids

© Phonak      Phonak Sky Lumity

Covering all ages and various levels of hearing loss is the aim of Phonak's recently announced extension of its Lumity portfolio.

 [ ... ]

MedRx launches its first wireless REM system: AWRCMedRx launches its first wireless REM system: AWRC

 

Audiometry

MedRx

The US-based manufacturer MedRx has announced the expansion of its audiometer and real ear verification product lines with the addition of the AWRC: a computer-powered audiometer and wireless REM combination system.

 [ ... ]

Phonak lures the reluctant with a sleek seven-degree left and right option: Slim Lumity for order UK and Ireland from May 2.Phonak lures the reluctant with a sleek seven-degree left and right option: Slim Lumity for order UK and Ireland from May 2.

 

hearing aids

^Phonak

Those reluctant to use hearing aids because of how they look or how they make them feel have had Swiss brand Phonak doing some thinking about how to give devices a style to match hearing performance.

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