People who suffer from chronic tinnitus may one day find relief by undergoing a treatment that currently has FDA approval only for major depressive disorder.
In a randomized clinical trial, the treatment, repetitive transcranial magnetic pulses (rTMS), was found to significantly improve symptoms of tinnitus in patients with chronic tinnitus.
In the largest clinical trial of rTMS to treat tinnitus, 64 patients with chronic tinnitus received active rTMS (n=32) or placebo rTMS (n=32) to an area targeting the auditory cortex of the brain. Treatment consisted of one pulse per second for 10 consecutive work days for a total of 2,000 pulses per session. The majority of participants were men (n=51), with a mean age of 60.6 years.