a new solution could provide relief to people who suffer from ringing in the ears

Depression is a real threat for people affected by noises or grinding in the ears. An application will train tinnitus victims to face their new inner enemy. One in ten people are affected.

A buzzing or squeaking sound that is often permanent: tinnitus is an ordeal that affects almost 1 in 10 people. Géraldine Zamansky, journalist at the Health Magazine on France 5, met one of the researchers who, with an international team in New Zealand, designed a new solution that could finally provide relief to those affected.

franceinfo: An international team evaluated an application that allows you to live better with these “interior” noises?

Geraldine Zamansky: While waiting for a treatment that removes them, this application would help support them. The stakes are high: depression threatens 2 out of 3 tinnitus victims. Imagine, a whistling sound that never stops, for example, it’s terrible. This may be related to hearing loss.

To put it very simply, the brain then tries to compensate for the reduction in sounds received by “increasing the volume”, and a parasitic noise appears. In these cases, it can sometimes be attenuated using classic “amplifying” hearing aids. But not if the cause is a sound shock, like a rock concert, or head trauma.

Is it for all these causes of tinnitus that these specialists sought another solution?

And they started from our brain’s natural ability to ignore the hubbub of a restaurant, to focus on the voices of those close to us, for example. The application will train tinnitus victims to reproduce this mechanism in the face of their new inner enemy, as Fabrice Bardy, one of its designers, at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, explained to me. And in two months, it relieved 60% of the 30 participants in the trial, the results of which they have just published.

How can we help the brain ignore tinnitus?

With an element of relaxation. Because a whistling sound, for example, is perceived as a real alarm signal by the brain, which goes into a permanent state of alert. Slowed breathing conversely creates a reassuring message: there is no real danger.

At the same time, meditation sessions also help the brain not to be invaded by stress. Without forgetting sound therapy: listening to soothing sounds, like waves, which help manage parasitic noise in moments of silence. The whole thing is accompanied by behavioral and cognitive therapy in a small daily dialogue with the application, to curb the negative thoughts generated by this ordeal.

Fabrice Bardy hopes that a French version will soon be created. In the meantime, he insists: even if it is difficult, these strategies make it possible to control tinnitus. Their victims can already find relaxation exercises, meditation and soothing sounds online.

The study

Possible application: Resound relief