What Is a Tinnitus Headache?

Neurotic tinnitus, also called sensorineural tinnitus, emphasizes the subjective feelings of patients. Refers to the abnormal sound sensation produced by people without any external stimulus. If you feel monotonous or mixed sounds such as cicada, buzz, and hiss in your ears, if you have persistent tinnitus, especially with other symptoms such as deafness, dizziness, and headache. Can be divided into sensory (from the cochlea), peripheral neuron (from the auditory nerve) and central nervous tinnitus.

Basic Information

nickname

Sensorineural tinnitus

English name

nervous deafness

Visiting department

ENT

Common locations

ear

Common symptoms

Tinnitus, deafness, dizziness, headache, etc.

Contagious

no

Causes of neurological tinnitus

Sensorine tinnitus

It is the most common neurological tinnitus. The common causes are senile deafness, ototoxic drug-induced hearing loss, noise-induced hearing loss, Meniere's disease, delayed membrane labyrinth, etc., and it can also be found in external lymphatic fistula, inner ear Infections, otosclerosis and other diseases.

2. Peripheral nerve tinnitus

The etiology is unknown, and it may be related to the degeneration of nerve fibers and the slow transmission of nerve fibers. Distortion of the resting state when the nerve fibers are discharged, and the transmission of special nerve fibers slows down, which can cause abnormal firing patterns of nerve fibers in the brain, and tinnitus can occur.

3. Central nervous tinnitus

Often occurs in the ears of the original or potential peripheral hearing dysfunction, such as tinnitus after labyrinthine or auditory nerve surgery. Tinnitus can also occur due to tension as a contributing or exacerbating factor. Tinnitus can occur in tumors, vascular abnormalities, local inflammation, multiple sclerosis and other invasion and hearing pathways.

Clinical manifestations of neurological tinnitus

Sensorine tinnitus

Tinnitus is of ever-changing nature, often accompanied by hearing loss. The severity and incidence of tinnitus are significantly related to hearing loss. The heavier the sensorineural hearing loss, the more likely it is to develop tinnitus. And the loudness of tinnitus also increases with the increase of hearing loss. However, tinnitus can also occur in people with normal hearing. And about one-third of moderate and severe hearing loss are not accompanied by tinnitus, which has not been explained so far.

2. Tinnitus in hearing neuroma

About 10% of the first-onset patients, unilateral tinnitus and normal hearing, we must exclude acoustic neuromas.

3. Central nervous tinnitus

Tinnitus often appears as white noise. When tinnitus and cerebrovascular disease occur at the same time, if there is no hearing impairment, it is mostly central nervous tinnitus. In addition, the patient reported that tinnitus may be central when it is inside the head, but it may also be bilateral cochlear tinnitus that cannot describe the tinnitus.

4. Earache

The appearance of tinnitus is not only a problem that affects hearing. Acute otitis media may have persistent faint earaches or occasional throbbing pain, and ear pain in patients with chronic otitis media is not obvious.

5. Loss of energy

The patient's mood is weak and his emotions are relatively tense, so the patient should not make his emotions excessively depressed after the occurrence of tinnitus.

Diagnosis of neurological tinnitus

1. Understand medical history

Perform ear and systemic examinations.

2. audiology examination

Pure tone audiometry, acoustic impedance audiometry, tinnitus tone and loudness matching detection, tinnitus after-effect suppression and minimum mask level detection, and other audiological and electrophysiological examinations.

Neurotic Tinnitus Treatment

Drug treatment

Vasodilators and neurons, anxiolytics, antidepressants, carbamazepines, anticonvulsants, lidocaine and diazepam.

2. Masking treatment

Masking treatment is to use a masker to generate a masking signal close to the patient's tinnitus sound frequency to mask and suppress tinnitus. When the masking sound is removed, tinnitus is reduced or disappeared, which is called "after-effect suppression". Long-term adherence can gradually increase the interval between tinnitus attacks, shorten the duration of the attacks, and even stop the attacks.

3. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy

Hyperbaric oxygen is a new treatment for tinnitus. The principle is to increase blood oxygen content, improve hypoxia damage of auditory receptors, and promote the recovery of cochlea and auditory nerve function. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is not suitable for patients with unobstructed eustachian tube.

4. Psychotherapy

Reduce anxiety, relax, pay attention to rest to some extent improve tinnitus.