Tinnitus: pharmacological topodiagnosis

Abstract

The difficulty of accurately localizing the source of subjective tinnitus is well-known. Anamnesis and traditional audiological tests can often suggest a source if its origin as peripheral or merely central (or both). Therefore, several authors, such as Risey, Denk, and Shulman, recently proposed identifying the source of subjective tinnitus through the evaluation of the responses reported by patients to adequate pharmacological treatments. Our study presents a useful plan to perform tinnitus topodiagnosis, which consists of specific audiological tests evaluating the characteristics of symptoms (annoyance, pitch, loudness, hyperacusis) and of several pharmacological tests carried out through the administration of particular drugs, the pharmacodynamic mechanisms and meaningful side effects of which are described. On the basis of pharmacological effects on tinnitometry, some drugs will be combined.