Neurotology Faculty Pioneers Placebo-controlled Trial For Tinnitus
Source: UCI School of Medicine
The UCI Neurotology faculty Harrison Lin, MD, Hamid Djalilian, MD, and Mehdi Abouzari, MD, PhD.
The UCI Neurotology faculty, doctors Mehdi Abouzari, Harrison Lin and Hamid Djalilian with their research team, published the results of their first randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial in Otolaryngology, the official publication of the American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery Foundation. In this four-year clinical trial, they evaluated the efficacy of nortriptyline-topiramate and verapamil-paroxetine combinations in tinnitus management. Both drug combinations resulted in a significant decrease in tinnitus severity captured by the TFI scores, which was not observed in the placebo group. Moving forward, larger-scale trials with longer follow-ups are warranted to validate their findings.
A randomized clinical trial reporting on the team’s internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) was also recently published in The Annals of Otology, Rhinology & Laryngology. The improvement seen with this therapy (improved TFI of 16.7) is on par or better than medical devices used for tinnitus and a fraction of the cost.
