BACKGROUND: There is increasing evidence that repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) can reduce chronic tinnitus. However, treatment results are characterized by high interindividual variability. Therefore, the identification of predictors for treatment response is of high clinical relevance. METHODS: Clinical data of 194 patients with tinnitus were evaluated. All patients were treated with a standardized rTMS procedure (1 Hz, 10 days, 2000 stimuli/day, over the left temporal cortex). A potential influence on the outcome was analysed for the following parameters: age, gender, depression scores in Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and tinnitus severity (TQ) before rTMS, lateralization, frequency and duration of tinnitus and extent of hearing loss. RESULTS: An effect of tinnitus laterality was observed. In patients with left-sided or bilateral tinnitus, rTMS resulted in a statistically significant reduction of TQ scores, whereas patients with right-sided tinnitus did not show a significant improvement after rTMS treatment. However, in correlation analyses, we found a trend which did not reach statistical significance that in the subgroup of treatment responders tinnitus duration influenced rTMS outcome. In addition, a multiple regression analysis identified the TQ score at baseline as a significant predictor for treatment outcome. For all other investigated parameters, no statistically significant effects were found. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that left temporal low-frequency rTMS has beneficial effects in left-sided and bilateral tinnitus, but not in right-sided tinnitus. In line with the results from earlier studies involving smaller samples, tinnitus duration was found to influence rTMS outcome.
BACKGROUND: There is increasing evidence that repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) can reduce chronic tinnitus. However, treatment results are characterized by high interindividual variability. Therefore, the identification of predictors for treatment response is of high clinical relevance. METHODS: Clinical data of 194 patients with tinnitus were evaluated. All patients were treated with a standardized rTMS procedure (1 Hz, 10 days, 2000 stimuli/day, over the left temporal cortex). A potential influence on the outcome was analysed for the following parameters: age, gender, depression scores in Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and tinnitus severity (TQ) before rTMS, lateralization, frequency and duration of tinnitus and extent of hearing loss. RESULTS: An effect of tinnitus laterality was observed. In patients with left-sided or bilateral tinnitus, rTMS resulted in a statistically significant reduction of TQ scores, whereas patients with right-sided tinnitus did not show a significant improvement after rTMS treatment. However, in correlation analyses, we found a trend which did not reach statistical significance that in the subgroup of treatment responders tinnitus duration influenced rTMS outcome. In addition, a multiple regression analysis identified the TQ score at baseline as a significant predictor for treatment outcome. For all other investigated parameters, no statistically significant effects were found. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that left temporal low-frequency rTMS has beneficial effects in left-sided and bilateral tinnitus, but not in right-sided tinnitus. In line with the results from earlier studies involving smaller samples, tinnitus duration was found to influence rTMS outcome.
Authors: Michael Landgrebe; Andréia Azevedo; David Baguley; Carol Bauer; Anthony Cacace; Claudia Coelho; John Dornhoffer; Ricardo Figueiredo; Herta Flor; Goeran Hajak; Paul van de Heyning; Wolfgang Hiller; Eman Khedr; Tobias Kleinjung; Michael Koller; Jose Miguel Lainez; Alain Londero; William H Martin; Mark Mennemeier; Jay Piccirillo; Dirk De Ridder; Rainer Rupprecht; Grant Searchfield; Sven Vanneste; Florian Zeman; Berthold Langguth Journal: J Psychosom Res Date: 2012-06-22 Impact factor: 3.006
Authors: Astrid Lehner; Martin Schecklmann; Michael Landgrebe; Peter M Kreuzer; Timm B Poeppl; Elmar Frank; Veronika Vielsmeier; Tobias Kleinjung; Rainer Rupprecht; Berthold Langguth Journal: Front Syst Neurosci Date: 2012-02-23
Authors: Martin Schecklmann; Gregor Volberg; Gabriele Frank; Julia Hadersdorfer; Thomas Steffens; Nathan Weisz; Michael Landgrebe; Göran Hajak; Mark Greenlee; Joseph Classen; Berthold Langguth Journal: PLoS One Date: 2011-11-02 Impact factor: 3.240
Authors: Peter Michael Kreuzer; Michael Landgrebe; Martin Schecklmann; Timm B Poeppl; Veronika Vielsmeier; Goeran Hajak; Tobias Kleinjung; Berthold Langguth Journal: Front Syst Neurosci Date: 2011-11-04
Authors: Berthold Langguth; Martin Schecklmann; Astrid Lehner; Michael Landgrebe; Timm Benjamin Poeppl; Peter Michal Kreuzer; Winfried Schlee; Nathan Weisz; Sven Vanneste; Dirk De Ridder Journal: Front Syst Neurosci Date: 2012-04-09