psychological impact on the tinnitus patient

To gauge the psychological impact of tinnitus on patients in our society. Patient survey [questionnaire] in the form of the Urdu version. Tinnitus Handicap Inventory [THI]. The study was carried out in the out patients department of the Shalamar Hospital, Lahore from January2009 to May 2009. A total of 64 patients with tinnitus were recruited. There were 35 males and 29 females. Patients with acute ear infections or ear surgery in the past were excluded from the study. An Urdu version of the THI was developed and was required to be filled up by the patients which took about 8 minutes. The results were recorded and computed. Majority of the patients volunteered the information that their tinnitus had a strong impact on their lives in terms of functional, emotional and psychiatric problems. The score of the patients obtained were as 'no handicap' [12.5% of the total subjects], 'mild handicap' [17.1% of the total subjects], 'moderate handicap [32.8% of the total subjects] and 'severe handicap' [37.5% of the total number of the sufferers]. Tinnitus has a severe impact on patients in our society and the ones who show a strongly negative psychological response to the tinnitus have to be counseled and treated by a team consisting of a psychiatrist, otolaryngologist and an audiologist

survey of tinnitus: some of its characteristics in our population

Purpose of study or investigation. The purpose of the study was to detail some of the common and specific characteristics of tinnitus in our society[Pakistan]

Basic procedure: patients were recruited from the outpatients department of the Shalimar Medical and Dental College, Lahore during a period of four weeks in the month of April, 2009. The questionnaire was presented to the patients with tinnitus with or without hearing loss while they were waiting for their audiograms. The results were recorded and computed using the SPSS software

Results: there were 35 males and 29 females who were recruited for this survey with ages ranging from 17 years to 85 years [mean 48 years]. 53.1% of the patients had the tinnitus since the last year and 54. 7% thought that their tinnitus was 'moderately' high while only 3.1% regarded their tinnitus to be 'very loud'. Most of the patients that the tinnitus was 'moderately severe' [51.6%] with only 3.1% of them regarded their tinnitus of a 'severe' variety. Most of the patients said they could hear their tinnitus as a hissing [46%] noise while 11.1% could hear only a pure tone. Almost half of the patients thought that their tinnitus had remained the same in the last one year[49.2%]. The tinnitus was considered to be the loudest during quiet times [35.9%] of the days [mornings and nights] and that's why most of the patients got the tinnitus in silent environments [20.3%]. Worryingly, almost half the patients did not think they knew anything which could decrease their tinnitus. Similarly, most of the patients thought that their tinnitus was constant [49.2%]. About 39% patients thought that there were times when they were actually free of the tinnitus. Finally, only a small minority thought that their tinnitus was in the head [1.6%] but it was surprisingly mostly heard of the left side [42.2%]

Conclusions: tinnitus is a common ailment in the Pakistani population affecting both males and females alike. It affects people through a wide range of ages but mostly affects the middle aged in the Lahori society. The tinnitus affects the patients in the Pakistani society more strongly than it does in the West