Tinnitus Spectral Ripple Sound Therapy Files
Patients with tinnitus tend to find treatments difficult to access due to limited resources. Sound-based therapies are attractive as a treatment option due to deliverability with widely available hardware. Tailored modulated sounds can be used with the goal of reducing tinnitus loudness. This study aimed to test a novel type of sound therapy, and to establish the feasibility of running an automated online study in which participants with tinnitus were asked to perform daily listening.
Seventy-seven unselected participants completed a fully online blinded randomised crossover trial, using their own devices, comparing active to perceptually-near-identical sham stimuli, comprising two 6-week listening periods and two 3-week washout periods. Fifty-three of these completed a novel broadband sound modulation, in which down-sloping dynamic spectral ripples were applied to specific frequencies near (active condition) or far away (sham condition) from the approximated frequency of each participant. The primary measure was the Numerical Rating Score of tinnitus loudness, which was measured at the beginning and at the end of each listening and washout period.