The Tinnitus Handicap Inventory as a screening test for psychiatric comorbidity in patients with tinnitus.

BACKGROUND: Psychiatric comorbidity is common in patients who seek help for tinnitus. The perceived severity of tinnitus correlates closer to psychological and general health factors than to audiometrical parameters. Audiologists need valid screening tools in order to identify patients with psychiatric disorders and to tailor treatment in a multidisciplinary setting. The tinnitus handicap inventory (THI) has gained widespread acceptance as a self-report measure of tinnitus handicap. In several studies, THI test score correlates with the level of psychopathologic distress. The aim of our study was to investigate the predictive power of the test THI in relation to psychiatric disorders. METHODS: We recruited 156 patients with chronic tinnitus who have requested help at our tinnitus center. All patients underwent psychiatric evaluation, the diagnosis was made in agreement with the DSMIV-TR criteria; all patients filled out the following questionnaires: THI, Symptomatic Check List-90-Revised (SCL-90-R) and Stress-related Vulnerability Scale (VRS). Sensibility and specificity of tests as screening tool for psychiatric disorders was evaluated using Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve. RESULTS: Sixty-eight patients (prevalence: 43.59%) were found to be affected by a psychiatric disorder. AUC = 0.792 (p > 0.001) shows that THI is a moderately accurate test to individuate psychiatric affected people among our sample. We identified a score of 36 at THI (sensibility = 86.76%; specificity = 59.09%) as an appropriate cut-off point. CONCLUSIONS: If a patient reports a THI score greater than 36, the audiologist should supplement diagnostic studies with a psychiatric evaluation.

The THI questionnaire: psychometric data for reliability and validity of the Italian version.

The main objective of this study was to determine reliability, validity, and reproducibility of the Italian version of the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI) self-administered questionnaire aimed at evaluating the impact of tinnitus on the quality of life of subjects affected by this symptom. The questionnaire was presented to a sample of 443 subjects (285 men and 158 women; ages 19-86; mean age, 53) who were referred to our Tinnitus Centre in Rome and came from the entire national territory. All subjects reported as their main problem a tinnitus that had persisted for at least 6 months. Statistical analysis carried out on THI questionnaire results showed high internal consistency and reliability for the total scale (Cronbach's alpha = .94). Despite the poor number of items, the THI proved useful for the functional scale (0.86), the emotional scale (0.89), and the catastrophic scale (0.75).