Like therapy, new app can reduce impact of tinnitus: researchers

London: Researchers have created an app to help those suffering from tinnitus that causes ‘ringing sound’ or ‘perpetual buzzing’ in the ears.

Tinnitus, also called ringing in the ears, affects 7.6 million people in the UK, according to a report by The Guardian.

It could often be a very debilitating condition as it occurs with no outside source of the sounds that patients hear.

Though there is no cure, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is among number of ways to manage the condition, the report added.

The therapy can help reduce patients’ emotional connection to the sound thus helping ‘the brain to learn to tune it out’.

Though effective, CBT can be expensive and difficult for people to access, according to the report.

The new app ‘MindEar’ provides CBT through a chatbot with other methods like sound therapy.

The study’s first author Dr Fabrice Bardy, who has tinnitus, from the University of Auckland said that ‘What we want to do is empower people to regain control.’

The study appeared in journal ‘Frontiers in Audiology and Otology’ said that two groups with 14 people each completed questionnaire before and after the eight-week period of experiment.

Where the first group used the app’s virtual coach, the second received similar instructions over video calls from a clinical psychologist.

The result, after six participants working on app and nine getting video calls, showed significant decrease in the distress from tinnitus.

Both groups reported similar results and Brady said some experienced tinnitus alongside anxiety, stress or sleep disorders.

Dr Lucy Handscomb of the UCL Ear Institute, who is part of the study, said in-person help for tinnitus was not easily accessible, according to the report.