ORIGINAL ARTICLES   

Otorinolaringologia 2008 December;58(4):165-8

Copyright © 2008 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: Italian

Psychiatric comorbidity in patients with chronic tinnitus: a case-control study

Maggio M., Chimenti M., Cascone M., Maggio O., Senatore M.

Università degli Studi di Palermo Polo Didattico di Caltanissetta, Caltanissetta, Italia

Aim. Several studies have emphasized a high frequency of comorbidity between tinnitus and some psychopathological disturbances. The aim of this study was to analyse the connection between psychopathological disorders and the seriousness of the tinnitus.
Methods. A case-control study has been carried out. The study group was made up of 138 patients both males and females, all of them of age and with a minimum of five years of school attendance who in the two year period from 2004 to 2006 came to the Department of Audiology of the University of Palermo for the diagnosis and treatment of tinnitus. The control group was accidentally recruited among citizens of Palermo and was made up of 125 people, with the same age and school attendance as the study group, who did not show any audiological pathology. In the control group the following diagnostic instruments have been used: SCL90-R TEST, and a short questionnaire concerning the audiological anamnesis; in patients with tinnitus: EMORY TEST or Jastreboff’s structured profile, which estimates the impact of tinnitus, hyperacusia and hypoacusia on the patient’s life, the TINNITUS HANDICAP INVENTORY, which investigates on the experience of the tinnitus and estimates the level of stress induced by it.
Results. Analysis of the data aimed to assess to what extent in patients suffering from tinnitus the various psychopathologies (depression, anxiety, phobias, psychosis), are connected to the tinnitus symptom, besides pointing out the most representative psychopathological disturbance and the relationship between them and tinnitus severity.
Conclusion. Results have pointed out a remarkable connection between tinnitus on the one hand and anxiety and sleep disorders on the other.