{"id":11381,"date":"2025-11-24T12:39:53","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T11:39:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stiftung-tinnitus-und-hoeren-charite.org\/?page_id=11381"},"modified":"2025-11-24T12:48:22","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T11:48:22","slug":"tinnitus","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/stiftung-tinnitus-und-hoeren-charite.org\/en\/home\/tinnitus-hearing\/tinnitus-hearing-loss-more-2\/tinnitus\/","title":{"rendered":"Tinnitus"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Tinnitus<\/b><\/h3>\n

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What is tinnitus?
\n<\/b>Tinnitus is a symptom that begins with a more or less intense ringing, whistling, hissing, buzzing, beeping or throbbing in one or both ears. In most cases, the tinnitus sounds occur detached from a sound source, which means that other people cannot perceive them. If the tinnitus lasts longer than three months, it is called \u201cchronic tinnitus\u201d. This can affect the entire perception and make the life of the affected person unbearable.<\/p>\n

Where does tinnitus originate?
\n<\/b>Tinnitus often begins as a disturbance in the inner ear or auditory pathway (\u201cpsychoacoustic phenomenon\u201d), in short: a malprocessing of acoustic signals in the brain. These malfunctions are triggered, for example, by damage to auditory sensory cells in the inner ear, which in turn causes ions to flow uncontrollably into these damaged cells and trigger \u201coverexcitation\u201d here. This causes an increased release of so-called messenger substances (neurotransmitters), which constantly creates so-called \u201cpotentials\u201d in the auditory pathway, which can be interpreted by the brain as tinnitus.<\/p>\n

Chronic tinnitus is caused by a negative learning process of the auditory pathway: After a sufficiently long exposure to the processing brain areas, the ear noise is stored as a pattern and remains there as an independent signal. After that, it doesn\u2019t matter whether the original trigger disappears or not: the sound or noise remains.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Causes and diagnosis
\n<\/strong>The causes are as varied as its manifestations and effects. In any case, a detailed medical examination of the affected person is necessary, for example by ENT specialists, psychosomatics, neurologists, internists, psychiatrists, psychologists and\/or orthopedists. Only they can rule out a physical cause such as Meniere\u2019s disease (a disorder of the inner ear), narrowing of the large vessels of the neck, wear and tear of the cervical spine, temporomandibular joint disorders, as well as a number of internal diseases such as diabetes, lipid metabolism disorders, and hypertension, for example.<\/p>\n

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Very often, tinnitus is also caused by damage to the inner ear as a result of noise or sound trauma. This can cause irreparable damage to the inner and outer hair cells in the cochlea.<\/p>\n

Current research also shows that severe psychological stress, such as stress at school or at work, can also be a trigger for tinnitus.<\/p>\n

Treatment methods<\/strong>
\nWe have compiled an overview of current therapy offers<\/a>, these are based on the S3 guideline Chronic Tinnitus<\/a>, published in 2021.<\/p>\n

Distribution
\n<\/strong>The number of tinnitus patients is constantly increasing: In Germany alone, there are several million people who suffer from tinnitus. One in four affected persons complains of a loss of quality of life. Therefore, it is extremely important that research into the causes of tinnitus, as well as new treatments, be intensified.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Sources:
\n1 Deutsche Gesellschaft f\u00fcr Hals-Nasen-Ohren-Heilkunde, Kopf- und Hals-Chirurgie e. V. (ed.), S 3-Leitlinie Chronischer Tinnitus, AWMF-Register-Nr. 017\/064, Sept. 2021, p. 6 ff.: https:\/\/register.awmf.org\/de\/leitlinien\/detail\/017-064
\n2 Boecking B, von Sass J, Sieveking A, Schaefer C, Brueggemann P, Rose M, Mazurek B., Tinnitus-related distress and pain perceptions in patients with chronic tinnitus \u2013 Do psychological factors constitute a link?, Plos One, June 2020, https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0234807
\n3 Hesse, G., Tinnitus, 2nd edition, 2016, Stuttgart: Thieme: https:\/\/eref.thieme.de\/ebooks\/1153629#\/ebook_1153629_SL48627866<\/h6>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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[vc_row full_width=”stretch_row” full_height=”yes” columns_placement=”top” css=”.vc_custom_1677499021789{padding-top: 100px !important;padding-bottom: 100px !important;background-color: #ecf0f3 !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text][\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column][vc_empty_space][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text] Tinnitus [\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_empty_space][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_single_image image=”11345″ img_size=”500×500″ onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text] What is tinnitus? Tinnitus is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":11380,"menu_order":71,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-11381","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stiftung-tinnitus-und-hoeren-charite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stiftung-tinnitus-und-hoeren-charite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stiftung-tinnitus-und-hoeren-charite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stiftung-tinnitus-und-hoeren-charite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stiftung-tinnitus-und-hoeren-charite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11381"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stiftung-tinnitus-und-hoeren-charite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11390,"href":"https:\/\/stiftung-tinnitus-und-hoeren-charite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11381\/revisions\/11390"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stiftung-tinnitus-und-hoeren-charite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stiftung-tinnitus-und-hoeren-charite.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}