Psychophysiological Treatment of Chronic Tinnitus

September 27, 2017 updated by: Winfried Rief, Philipps University Marburg Medical Center

Evaluation of Psychological and Psychophysiological Effects of a Biofeedback-based Cognitive-behavioral Psychotherapy for Chronic Tinnitus-sufferers

The study aims to develop and to evaluate a psychophysiological intervention for distressing chronic tinnitus. Therefore 100 people suffering from chronic tinnitus are randomly assigned to either an intervention-group, receiving 12 sessions of a psychophysiological oriented intervention, or to a waiting-list-group, who are waiting for a comparable time period. Afterwards, patients of the waiting-list-group also receive intervention. The effects of the intervention on severity, distress and perceived loudness of the tinnitus as well as on other psychological variables like depression or self-efficacy are evaluated through comparing the results of the intervention group with those of the waiting-list-group.

Additionally the psychophysiological reactivity under different stress-conditions is measured before and after intervention or waiting. Therefore the activity of the muscles of head and shoulders (EMG) as well as the skin temperature and skin conductance are measured. It is hypothesized that patients with stronger psychophysiological reactivity benefit more from an psychophysiological intervention.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

The study aims to develop and to evaluate a psychophysiological intervention for distressing chronic tinnitus. Therefore 100 people suffering from chronic tinnitus are randomly assigned to either an intervention-group, receiving 12 sessions of a psychophysiological oriented intervention, or to a waiting-list-group, who are waiting for a comparable time period. Afterwards, patients of the waiting-list-group also receive intervention. The effects of the intervention on severity, distress and perceived loudness of the tinnitus as well as on other psychological variables like depression or self-efficacy are evaluated through comparing the results of the intervention group with those of the waiting-list-group.

Additionally the psychophysiological reactivity under different stress-conditions is measured before and after intervention or waiting. Therefore the activity of the muscles of head and shoulders (EMG) as well as the skin temperature and skin conductance are measured. It is hypothesized that patients with stronger psychophysiological reactivity benefit more from an psychophysiological intervention.

Further aims of the study are 1) to compare the muscle activity of the tinnitus-patients with those from healthy controls, because till now no study investigated if tinnitus-patients effectively present higher muscle activity in head and shoulders than healthy people and 2) to evaluate the influence of the subjective illness perceptions on the intervention-outcome, because it is hypothesized that patients with more somatic illness perceptions benefit more from a psychophysiological intervention than patients with rather psychological illness perceptions.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Anticipated)

130

Phase

  • Phase 2

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Germany
      • Marburg, Germany, 35032
        • Philipps-University Marburg, Faculty of Psychology

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

16 years to 75 years (Child, Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • 100 subjects with distressing and chronic tinnitus (for at least 6 month)
  • age: 16-75 years
  • sufficient language skills

plus

  • 50 healthy control-subjects
  • without tinnitus or other hearing disease

Exclusion Criteria (for both):

  • tinnitus as a result of medical disease (e.g.Meniere's disease)
  • attendance in the previous study
  • psychosis or dementia

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Tinnitus Questionnaire German Version
Tinnitus diary

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Beck Depression Inventory
Symptom Check List
Illness perception questionnaire
Pain disability index
Generalized self efficacy

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Philipps University Marburg Medical Center

Collaborators

German Research Foundation

Investigators

  • Study Director: Winfried Rief, Philipps University Marburg Medical Center

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

May 1, 2005

Study Completion (Actual)

May 1, 2008

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

November 7, 2006

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 7, 2006

First Posted (Estimate)

November 8, 2006

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

October 2, 2017

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 27, 2017

Last Verified

September 1, 2017

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • RI 574/12-1

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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