Health

New Drug Treats Tinnitus Symptoms

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ― More than 50 million Americans have Tinnitus.

For 2 million patients, Tinnitus can be severely distracting and debilitating with the most common symptom being a constant buzzing noise in the ears.

Researchers at Oregon Health and Science University are testing a drug for alcoholism as a possible treatment for Tinnitus.

Researchers at Oregon Health and Science University say alcoholism causes an imbalance in certain brain chemicals. They believe a similar imbalance plays a role in Tinnitus.

According to Dr. William Martin, "there's an imbalance in the brain in the auditory system, the parts of the brain involved with hearing."

The study drug, called Acamprosate, helps stabilize the chemicals to get the brain working normally again.

"What this medication does is it supposedly balances out the excitatory and the inhibitory neurotransmitters, the chemicals in the brain that tell the nerves what to do," says Dr. Martin. "During that six weeks, we want to find out if people respond to it, if they have significant decrease in the loudness of their Tinnitus."

The study may provide clues to the brain's role in the condition.

Dr. Martin adds, "If we can figure out what the brain's doing, then we can actually design interventions proactively to treat this problem."

Researchers say Tinnitus has a lot of underlying causes so the drug won't work for everyone. However, there may be a subset of people it can help.

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