Self-Administered Domiciliary tDCS Treatment for Tinnitus : A Double-Blind Sham-Controlled Study
Loading...
Access rights
openAccess
publishedVersion
URL
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
This publication is imported from Aalto University research portal.
View publication in the Research portal (opens in new window)
View/Open full text file from the Research portal (opens in new window)
Other link related to publication (opens in new window)
View publication in the Research portal (opens in new window)
View/Open full text file from the Research portal (opens in new window)
Other link related to publication (opens in new window)
Date
2016-04-28
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Language
en
Pages
15
Series
PloS one, Volume 11, issue 4
Abstract
Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has shown potential for providing tinnitus relief, although positive effects have usually been observed only during a short time period after treatment. In recent studies the focus has turned from one-session experiments towards multi-session treatment studies investigating long-term outcomes with double-blinded and sham-controlled study designs. Traditionally, tDCS has been administered in a clinical setting by a healthcare professional but in studies involving multiple treatment sessions, often a trade-off has to be made between sample size and the amount of labor needed to run the trial. Also, as the number of required visits to the clinic increases, the dropout rate is likely to rise proportionally. The aim of the current study was to find out if tDCS treatment for tinnitus could be patient-administered in a domiciliary setting and whether the results would be comparable to those from in-hospital treatment studies. Forty-three patients with chronic (> 6 months) tinnitus were involved in the study, and data on 35 out of these patients were included in final analysis. Patients received 20 minutes of left temporal area anodal (LTA) or bifrontal tDCS stimulation (2 mA) or sham stimulation (0.3 mA) for ten consecutive days. An overall reduction in the main outcome measure, Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI), was found (mean change -5.0 points, p <0.05), but there was no significant difference between active and sham treatment outcomes. Patients found the tDCS treatment easy to administer and they all tolerated it well. In conclusion, self-administered domiciliary tDCS treatment for tinnitus was found safe and feasible and gave outcome results similar to recent randomized controlled long-term treatment trials. The results suggest better overall treatment response-as measured by THI-with domiciliary treatment than with in-hospital treatment, but this advantage is not related to the tDCS variant. The study protocol demonstrated in the current study is not restricted to tinnitus only.Description
Funding Information: Funding: PH has received personal grants from the Paulo Foundation (www.paulo.fi) and the Jenny and Funding Information: PH has received personal grants from the Paulo Foundation (www.paulo.fi) and the Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation (www.wihurinrahasto.fi). PH, AM and AAA have received a research group grant from the Avohoidon tutkimuss??ti? (Research fund for outpatient care: http://www.aurora-tietokanta.fi/ foundation/details/id/276/refc/lang). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. This study was supported by Avohoidon tutkimuss??ti? (Research Fund for Outpatient Care). PH would also like to thank the Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation and the Paulo Foundation for their financial support. The authors wish to thank Tuomas Neuvonen, Mika Nikander and Jani Virtanen from Sooma Oy for their valuable technical support and advice. Funding Information: This study was supported by Avohoidon tutkimussäätiö (Research Fund for Outpatient Care). PH would also like to thank the Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation and the Paulo Foundation for their financial support. The authors wish to thank Tuomas Neuvonen, Mika Nikander and Jani Virtanen from Sooma Oy for their valuable technical support and advice. Funding Information: AM and AAA have received a research group grant from the Avohoidon tutkimussäätiö (Research fund for outpatient care: http://www.aurora-tietokanta.fi/ Publisher Copyright: © 2016 Hyvärinen et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Keywords
DIRECT-CURRENT STIMULATION, HUMAN MOTOR CORTEX, HANDICAP INVENTORY, CLINICAL-TRIALS, DEPRESSION, INTENSITY, NEUROSCIENCE, SUPPRESSION, MODULATION, GUIDELINES
Other note
Citation
Hyvärinen, P, Mäkitie, A & Aarnisalo, A A 2016, ' Self-Administered Domiciliary tDCS Treatment for Tinnitus : A Double-Blind Sham-Controlled Study ', PloS one, vol. 11, no. 4, 0154286 . https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0154286