Effect of daily repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation for treatment of tinnitus: comparison of different stimulus frequencies

TLDR

The study randomized 66 chronic tinnitus patients to daily 2‑week rTMS at 1 Hz, 10 Hz, 25 Hz, or sham over the left temporoparietal cortex and assessed outcomes with the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory, symptom self‑ratings, and residual‑inhibition audiometry before, immediately after, and monthly for four months. Real rTMS produced greater improvement than sham, with no difference among frequencies, and the benefit was greater in patients with shorter tinnitus duration, suggesting daily temporoparietal rTMS may be a useful treatment.

Abstract

We compared the effect of different frequencies of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) (1 Hz, 10 Hz, 25 Hz and sham (occipital, 1 Hz)), given daily over the left temporoparietal cortex for 2 weeks, on 66 patients with chronic tinnitus randomly divided into four treatment groups. Patients were assessed using the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory, self-ratings of symptoms and audiometric measures of residual inhibition before, immediately after 2 weeks' treatment and monthly thereafter for 4 consecutive months.There were no significant differences in basal measures between the four groups of patients. A two-factor ANOVA revealed a significant "rTMS" x "time" interaction for all measures. This was because real rTMS produced greater improvement than sham. However, there was no significant difference between the responses to different frequencies of rTMS. The response to rTMS depended on the duration of tinnitus: patients who had tinnitus for the longest period of time were the least likely to respond to treatment.Daily sessions of rTMS over the temporoparietal cortex may be a useful potential treatment for tinnitus.