Subtyping of chronic tinnitus

TINNET («An Action for Better Understanding the Heterogeneity of Tinnitus to Improve and Develop New Treatments»), a research network funded by the EU within the COST program ("European Cooperation in Science and Technology"); http://tinnet.tinnitusresearch.net/

Tinnitus is a common symptom which, in some cases, can lead to a significant impairment of the quality of life. There is a plethora of different therapeutic approaches beneficial to some patients but not to others. This suggests that various forms of tinnitus that differ in their underlying pathophysiology must exist and that these forms respond in different ways to therapeutic interventions. In recent decades, fundamental research has been able to make important contributions towards understanding the mechanisms by which chronic tinnitus develops. However, this understanding has not yet led to the development of universal therapeutic approaches that would help the majority of patients. A possible reason for the unsuccessful outcome of different studies lies in the small number of patients and the insufficient characterization of the individual study participants. For this reason, it is necessary to have a standardized instrument for subtyping different tinnitus patients. Our research group participates in the data collection of the TINNET project ("An Action for Better Understanding the Heterogeneity of Tinnitus to Improve and Develop New Treatments"), a research network funded by the EU as part of the COST Program ("European Cooperation in Science and Technology"), which has developed a standardized database that will enable better subtyping of individual patients. In addition to data collection, members of our workgroup are supporting other Program workgroups to develop international standards in neuroscientific imaging, to define uniform criteria for the evaluation of therapeutic success in tinnitus studies, and to identify genetic factors in the pathogenesis of tinnitus. The four-year project was completed in 2018 and a follow-up action is planned.