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Title
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A listening ear : psychotherapeutic interventions in the treatment of chronic, subjective tinnitus
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Author
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Abstract
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| The perception of tinnitus, known as an internal sound in the absence of external auditory input, can be extremely bothersome and debilitating. Worldwide, tinnitus sounds raise awareness in 8 – 20% of the population and become chronic. For about 1 – 3 %, tinnitus is distressing and therapeutic intervention is needed. Currently, psychotherapeutic tinnitus interventions commonly consist of psychoeducation, Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT) and / or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). The tinnitus population is frequently represented with comorbid complaints such as insomnia, anxiety and depression. For this reason, there is no treatment-fits-all and thus personalized treatment options are recommended, however, to date effective treatment options are scarce. Tinnitus is known as phantom percept and recent research on Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) and phantom pain has shown promising results. This doctoral thesis was performed in order to gain insight in the value of EMDR as treatment for chronic subjective tinnitus, to examine whether this psychotherapeutic intervention can be applied as effective tinnitus treatment, and to explore the influence of personality traits on treatment outcome. The first part of this dissertation investigated the existence of relevant EMDR - studies. This was the first systematic review on EMDR as treatment for tinnitus resulting in an overview of the currently existing scientifically proven studies assessed by the Platinum Standard, giving support to the effectiveness of EMDR. Consequently, in the second part of the thesis the study protocol for a prospective, randomized controlled trial with blind evaluator was represented. A total of 166 patients with chronic, subjective, non-pulsatile tinnitus were screened and 91 patients were randomized in two treatment groups: TRT/CBT versus TRT/EMDR. Data from 89 patients were assessed at three time-points i.e. before treatment, after treatment, and at three month follow up. The focus was on analyzing the Tinnitus Functional Index (TFI) as primary outcome measurement, and the Tinnitus Questionnaire (TQ), Hyperacusis Questionnaire (HQ), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), Visual Analogue Scale for tinnitus loudness (VASLoudness), and Global Perceived Effect (GPE) as secondary outcomes, after psychotherapeutic treatment. Both bimodal therapies resulted in significant reduction of tinnitus distress, tinnitus related complaints, tinnitus loudness, hypersensitivity to sound, anxiety, and depressive symptoms and led to significant increase of quality of life. Assessments indicated a stable effect of these improvements after three months. The present study provides evidence for the effectiveness of both treatment protocols showing no superiority of TRT/EMDR over TRT/CBT. In the third part, the influence of specific personality traits in therapeutic outcome was investigated. Data from the RCT were employed to identify correlations between self-report outcome measures and Big Five Inventory (BFI) personality traits. K-means cluster analysis revealed four distinct personality clusters containing a specific combination of traits. In conclusion, these empirical findings highlight the effectiveness of both bimodal therapies showing no different efficacy and underline the significant influence of personality traits in psychotherapeutic treatments. |
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Language
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English
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Publication
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Antwerp
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University of Antwerp, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences
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2021
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ISBN
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978-94-6416-364-3
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Volume/pages
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266 p.
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Note
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Gilles, Annick [Supervisor]
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Van de Heyning, Paul [Supervisor]
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De Bodt, Marc [Supervisor]
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Declau, Frank [Supervisor]
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Full text (open access)
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