Evaluation of the psychopathological risk factors associated with tinnitus: A case-control study of an outpatient cohort

Abstract

Tinnitus affects about 10–17% of the population worldwide. In 4% of cases, it is also accompanied by unrelenting and annoying psychological problems. To date, it is still unclear whether tinnitus is in some way correlated with psychopathological distress and, if this is the case, whether it affects the psychopathological profile of the patient by worsening it, or by eliciting its manifestation.

The present study assessed whether patients with tinnitus were more likely to have psychopathological distress than those who were not affected by the symptom. The experimental design of the research was based on a case control study. Case patients were defined as subjects affected by idiopathic tinnitus who were referred to the Audiology Clinic of the University of Naples, Italy from April 2003 to March 2004. Inclusion criteria were: 1) patients aged 18–60 years, 2) eight years of education, and 3) new cases of tinnitus. To obtain an appropriate control population, the ‘study base’ principle was adopted: the control subjects, who came to the same clinic as above from March 2003 to April 2004, shared the same characteristics as the case subjects apart from tinnitus. After giving written informed consent, the two groups completed a brief questionnaire related to audiological history and a standardized self-report inventory relating to psychopathological symptoms (Symptoms Check List (SCL-90)). To verify the correlation between tinnitus and psychopathological disorders, a logistic regression technique was employed. A total of 80 cases and 119 controls were enrolled. Tinnitus was found to be associated with the highest subscale and index levels of the following symptoms: somatisation, obsessive compulsive behaviour, depression, anxiety, sleep disorders, General Symptomatic Index, Positive Symptom Total, Positive Symptom Distress Index. Our results indicate that there is an intriguing correlation between tinnitus and psychopathological disorders, especially with respect to anxiety and depression.

• Tinnitus
• SCL-90
• depression
• anxiety