A treatment for tinnitus could be a step closer after scientists from Newcastle University were given a £300,000 boost by UK charity Action on Hearing Loss to fund a three-year research project into the condition.
Around one in 10 of the UK population – or six million people – suffer from some form of tinnitus and there is currently no cure or effective treatment. Side effects include loss of sleep, depression and anxiety. The funding will be used to speed up the development of a new treatment and test its effectiveness on patients.
The new research programme will be led by one of the professors at Newcastle University, Dr Mark Cunningham, who also works at the Institute of Neuroscience. Dr Cunningham will and his team will be working alongside a leading pharmaceutical company to develop the treatment.
“We’re working with a pharmaceutical company and they have come up with a new drug which is in clinical trials at the moment which could be a treatment for tinnitus. Not a cure, but a treatment.
“The focus of this project is to see if we can use electrical waves in one of the hearing centres of the brain to measure tinnitus both to discover if the therapy developed is working and how it is having its effect,” said Dr Cunningham.
Newcastle University was established as a school of medicine and surgery in 1834 and has one of the UK’s largest research portfolios.
Symptoms of tinnitus include a buzzing or ringing in the ears and it often takes the form of a whooshing or humming noise. It can affect one or both ears and be constant or intermittent, and sometimes sufferers are not aware they have it.
People who have worked in noisy environments like factories and the music industry are more likely to develop tinnitus than those who haven’t. The elderly are also more prone to the condition than the younger population.
In 2014, Nottingham University conducted a trial of a new treatment, known as Acoustic Coordinated Reset (ACR) where sufferers were played a tone equivalent to the their tinnitus through headphones for up to six hours a day to “retune” their brain. Patients on this trial claimed to have experienced significant improvements in their condition but the British Tinnitus Association has said while the results were “encouraging” it needed a larger, independent sample conducted.
News of the funding coincides with Tinnitus Awareness Week which runs from Monday 2nd February to Sunday 8th February which aims to raise awareness of the condition. During the week, displays will be put up in hospitals, supermarkets and colleges throughout the country. The British Tinnitus Association has also produced a number of information leaflets. Several talks and help sessions will take place over the week too.
Clear Law has pledged its support of Tinnitus Awareness Week.
If you or your loved one is suffering from tinnitus as result of their workplace, you could be entitled to make a claim for compensation. Visit www.ringing-inears.co.uk for more information or call 0800 122 3036 to speak to a member of the team.