Low-level laser therapy has been determined to be the most effective therapy for tinnitus by a research conducted by the Optics and Photonics Research Center in Brazil. These findings may pave the way for future standard laser therapy treatments.
Brazilian researchers examined the therapies used the most often for tinnitus, a condition that affects some 750 million people around the world.
According to a study comparing the main therapies currently in use at the CEPOF, low-level laser therapy and photobiomodulation are the most successful of the known treatments for tinnitus. The study is reported in a journal published in the Journal of Personalized Medicine.
CEPOF is a research, innovation, and dissemination center funded by FAPESP and located at the University of So Paulo's So Carlos Institute of Physics (IFSC-USP) in Brazil.
According to a European study that looked at five decades of patient data, tinnitus is a treatable illness rather than a condition but it is unpleasant and in some instances incapacitating. Its causes may include anything from a buildup of ear wax to brain damage and bruxism.
"Tinnitus is a very common illness in the general population. It's treated with a slew of therapies, from ear lavage to local anesthesia, anti-depressants, anti-histamines, anti-psychotics, and sedatives, with different results," said Vitor Hugo Panhóca, a researcher at CEPOF. "We decided to compare the main therapies and pursue additional solutions to the problem."
Panhóca and his colleagues studied alternative and complementary therapies for idiopathic (with no apparent cause) and refractory tinnitus on more than 100 men and women aged 18 to 65, divided randomly into ten groups, on its own and as a supplement to vacuum therapy, G. biloba or flunarizine dihydrochloride.
The patients were assessed before treatment began, after the eighth session, and a fortnight later, using a "tinnitus handicap inventory questionnaire" with a total of 25 questions. A functional subscale included 11 questions on mental, social, occupational, and physical limitations as a result of tinnitus.
Patients treated with laser acupuncture alone or transmeatal low-power laser stimulation alone improved their outcomes even more when the irradiation time was increased from 6 to 15 minutes. Laser acupuncture alone or flunarizine dihydrochloride alone had similar therapeutic effects.
"The beneficial effects include anti-inflammatory action and relaxation. We believe laser therapy can increase peripheral irrigation, which may be the main cause of the problem in many instances, as well as stimulating inner ear cell proliferation and collagen production," Panhóca said.
The CEPOF investigation isn't the only one to demonstrate that laser therapy may help tinnitus patients; it also opens the way for the development of a protocol for dentists, ear, nose, and throat specialists, speech therapists, and other medical professionals who have such patients, given the amount of sessions and intensity of the treatment.
"Understanding how effective therapies are will help us focus on the most efficient approaches in future investigations," Panhóca said, adding that laser therapy must also be investigated for long-term effects.
Vitor Hugo Panhóca, Antônio Eduardo de Aquino Junior, Viviane Brocca de Souza, Simone Aparecida Ferreira, Karina Jullienne de Oliveira Souza, Patricia Eriko Tamae, Marcelo Saito Nogueira, and Vanderlei Salvador Bagnato, doi:10.13390/jpm13040581.
Fernanda Rossi Paolillo received a postdoctoral fellowship from FAPESP.
Researchers from the Irmandade Santa Casa de Misericórdia Hospital in So Carlos, the University of Central So Paulo (UNICEP), and the Integrated Therapy Center in Londrina (Paraná state), Brazil, as well as the Tyndall National Institute at University College Cork (UCC) in Ireland.