New 'MindEar' App Can Reduce Debilitating Impact of Tinnitus, Say Researchers

Researchers have designed an app to reduce the impact of tinnitus, an often debilitating condition that manifests via a ringing sound or perpetual buzzing. The Guardian reports: While there is no cure, there are a number of ways of managing the condition, including cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). This helps people to reduce their emotional connection to the sound, allowing the brain to learn to tune it out. However, CBT can be expensive and difficult for people to access. Researchers have created an app, called MindEar, that provides CBT through a chatbot with other approaches such as sound therapy. 'What we want to do is empower people to regain control,' said Dr Fabrice Bardy, the first author of the study from the University of Auckland -- who has tinnitus.

Writing in the journal Frontiers in Audiology and Otology, Bardy and colleagues report how 28 people completed the study, 14 of whom were asked to use the app's virtual coach for 10 minutes a day for eight weeks. The other 14 participants were given similar instructions with four half-hour video calls with a clinical psychologist. The participants completed online questionnaires before the study and after the eight-week period. The results reveal six participants given the app alone, and nine who were also given video calls, showed a clinically significant decrease in the distress caused by tinnitus, with the extent of the benefit similar for both groups. After a further eight weeks, a total of nine participants in both groups reported such improvements.

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