Ear Nose Throat J. 1991 May; 70(5): 284-9.

Idiopathic subjective tinnitus treated by biofeedback, acupuncture and drug therapy.

Podoshin L, Ben-David Y, Fradis M, Gerstel R, Felner H.

Department of Otolaryngology, Faculty of Medicine, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa.

The effect of three treatment modalities of idiopathic-subjective tinnitus (IST): acupuncture (AP), biofeedback (BF) and Cinnarizine (Cin), was investigated in 58 randomly selected subjects. The findings show that at the end of treatment, 50% of the patients in the biofeedback group reported some amelioration in the level of the tinnitus, while 30% of the acupuncture group and only 10% of the group receiving Cinnarizine reported an amelioration of the tinnitus. Treatment by biofeedback caused a significant easing in the degree of discomfort caused by the tinnitus to patients during rest. Within the limitations of the sample study, our results indicate that the biofeedback method is more effective in comparison with acupuncture and Cinnarizine in the treatment of those suffering from tinnitus.