Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for tinnitus

Wasn’t sure where to post this as it’s not an ME/CFS study, so please move if necessary. (Moderator note: thread has been moved.)

I’ve only read the abstract and skimmed the rest but this study looks so bad – an open label uncontrolled trial relying on self-reported subjective outcome measures, with the added awfulness of mixing mindfulness with CBT – that I thought it was worth sharing. To be fair to the authors, they recognise some of the weaknesses, but what is the point of such research?

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28945659

Reported in the Observer to be giving hope to sufferers:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jul/01/tinnitus-mindfulness-new-treatment-study

[Edit: correction: The Observer article is primarily referring to this study which compared MBCT with relaxation training:https://www.karger.com/Article/FullText/478267. The uncontrolled study above was in addition to this study and is reported to have produced similar results. Apologies for providing inaccurate information.]

 

Here's what I want from one of these ubiquitous studies. I want one of the PI's to have intractable long term tinnitus (or whatever) and have them be part of the study to see how well it really works.

I'm just venting as usual but I have really bad tinnitus and have had it for decades. I'd love a treatment.
I've also done meditation off and on for years too. It has no effect.

Although I can't see the point to mindfulness. Your brain learns to tune it out especially when the sounds are less invasive. It's not paying attention that is the key. It may have some affect on acceptance for some but how do these groups manage to get a constant stream of funding for this stuff?

 

The most significant part is:

While its cause is unknown, specialists insist it is not a disease or an illness. Rather, according to the British Tinnitus Association (BTA), it results from some type of change that can be either mental or physical and may be unrelated to hearing. There is no known cure but the study, published in the journals Ear and Hearing and Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, suggests the effects can be mitigated using psychological techniques.

So, it's "either mental or physical" but what they really mean is "it's some type of change that IS MENTAL" and by saying "some type" we're saying it doesn't matter, there's no need to get to the bottom of it because it isn't physical anyway. Since it has no 'illness' status then it's fair game.

It's strange how they step across the bridge from accepting one's symptoms to disappearing them using the mind. To me ACT and CBT are both proven therapies to help with controlling thoughts. They might genuinely cause the mind to not make up or blow out of proportion fear about symptoms and imagined things based on past experiences. They have been highjacked. They are not so magical that they'll remove the symptoms. I am amazed that medicos think this is possible. It proves to me how trivial they think pain, tinnitus and other chronic symptoms are. Clearly they believe these symptoms are imagined and this imagination is so powerful that it can cause actual symptoms and so, backtracking in the same manner is a legitimate treatment. This stinks of ablism. If you are able bodied you have no idea about chronic malaise and pain you can only imagine it.

 

I've had tinnitus in my left ear since I had measles as a child (high pitched ringing), but started getting a different kind (pulsating humm like a generator) in my right ear ten years ago; this also now turns into the same high pitched ringing every so often.
So, what; I imagined it since I was eight and so convincingly persuaded myself that I should have more of it?

 

Anoyone following this thread, please see the correction I have added to my original post. Apologies for the mistake.