Can Hypnosis Cure Tinnitus?
The most popular case study with …show more content…
They compared self-hypnosis versus directly attending to a patient’s complaints to determine whether one approach had better results. Fourteen participants participated in the study in which thirty-six percent had a favorable result after going through the induction process. While it did not eliminate the tinnitus entirely, it did help them with coping with the ringing in their ears.
Researchers also used a separate group of two individuals who were specifically taught varying levels of self-hypnosis. The first individual was taught to manipulate his tinnitus into pleasant music. The second individual was given a combination of hypnotherapy and relaxation to also change sounds whenever they were experiencing a tinnitus episode. Both patients reported a positive change and had a high level of confidence in knowing that they could manipulate the tinnitus whenever necessary. Researchers concluded that the individual attention with the patients to learn self-hypnosis was the superior modality when dealing with tinnitus. Further research was also recommended since more control groups of greater size are needed to further support their …show more content…
Is there a direct relationship between stress that a person is experiencing and is it brought on by tinnitus? A recent study conducted by the Journal of Psychosomatic Research sought to determine whether or not decreasing a person’s stress levels would directly affect their levels of chronic tinnitus.
A group of thirty-nine patients participated in a ten week relaxation program. Twenty-six members had various levels of tinnitus and the remaining thirteen did not have tinnitus at all. A separate set of eighteen tinnitus sufferers were put on a waiting list and they were listed as the control subjects. Each group would be evaluated for stress levels before and after the ten week program.
After the ten week session, all of the twenty-six members who had tinnitus reported a decreased level of anxiety, anger and stress overall. They also noticed that the occurrence of tinnitus was also reduced. The control group and the remaining thirteen participants who did not have tinnitus did not experience psychological changes after the study. Researchers concluded that the ten week session was significant in lowering the stress levels with the participants that had tinnitus. Furthermore, stress was a major indicator with the chronic tinnitus