Sound therapy for tinnitus – sacred cow or idol worship?: An investigation of the evidence

Abstract

Sound therapy is widely used as an ingredient in the treatment of people with tinnitus. This paper examines the evidence concerning sound therapy. A literature search was carried out in order to identify papers that distinguish the effects of sound therapy from the effects of other elements in tinnitus therapy. Few papers allow this distinction. The evidence from those papers that do identify sound therapy as a separate component of treatment indicates that sound therapy without counselling offers no benefit to patients with tinnitus but that counselling alone is of benefit. The evidence concerning whether sound therapy results in additional benefit to that offered by the psychological component of tinnitus therapy is mixed but overall it suggests that sound therapy results in little or no extra benefit. It is likely that when sound therapy does benefit people with tinnitus this effect is mediated by psychological factors.

• Tinnitus
• sound therapy