Description:

Tinnitus is a prevalent and often debilitating symptom that affects millions worldwide. Despite its frequency, clinicians frequently struggle with its management due to the heterogeneity of causes and responses to treatment. This Instruction Course is designed to provide a clear, concise, and practical guide for managing tinnitus patients in real-world clinical settings. It will focus on decision-making strategies, categorizing patients, and selecting appropriate interventions.

The session is divided between three expert clinicians. The first speaker, Dr. Maryam Sadeghijam, will focus on patient profiling and clinical decision-making. Drawing on audiological, psychological, and subjective patient data, she will demonstrate how to formulate an individualized treatment strategy and determine the most appropriate therapeutic direction. The second speaker, Dr. Ahmad Reza Nazeri, will present an overview of current treatment modalities—including counseling, sound therapy, hearing aids, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), and neuromodulation— and explain how to match each approach to specific patient profiles. The third speaker, Mevlüde Işık, will focus on neuromodulation in tinnitus, with an emphasis on transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). This section will briefly cover the clinical rationale for tDCS, patient selection criteria, and its role as an adjunctive tool within multimodal tinnitus management.

Outcome objectives:

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Integrate audiological, psychological, and subjective assessments to guide treatment planning

• Select personalized management strategies using a structured clinical algorithm

• Compare counseling, sound therapy, CBT, and neuromodulation based on patient profiles

Structure of session:

Part 1 – Clinical Decision-Making in Tinnitus Management

Speaker: Dr. Maryam Sadeghijam

- Quick overview of tinnitus subtypes (e.g., subjective vs. objective, chronic vs. acute, bothersome vs. non-bothersome)

- The essential components of initial assessment: audiological, psychological, and subjective evaluations

- Clinical decision-making models based on patient profiles

- Simple checklists and red flags to guide early-stage planning

Part 2 – Treatment Options and How to Match each approach to Specific Patient Profiles

Speaker: Dr. Ahmad Reza Nazeri

- Concise review of core management approaches:

·       Counseling and patient education

·       Sound therapy and hearing aids

·       Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

·       Mindfulness-based interventions

·       Neuromodulation

- Comparative table of approaches: strengths, limitations, ideal patient types

- Common pitfalls in choosing or applying treatments

- A brief, actionable algorithm for everyday clinical decision-making

 Part 3 – Neuromodulation in Tinnitus: Practical Use of tDCS

Speaker: Mevlüde Işık

-Neurophysiological basis of neuromodulation in tinnitus

-tDCS in tinnitus management:

.             Core mechanisms and main cortical targets

.             Commonly used stimulation protocols and safety considerations

-Patient selection and clinical integration:

.             Tinnitus profiles most suitable for tDCS

.             Influence of severity, chronicity, and treatment resistance

Background:

1-     Shannon entropy measures for EEG signals in tinnitus

2-     An increase in the auditory steady-state response amplitudes after a period of listening to binaural beat stimuli in tinnitus patients: a pilot study

3-     Does tinnitus lead to chaos?

4-     The hypothetical relation between the degree of stress and auditory cortical evoked potentials in tinnitus sufferers

5-     Use of some relevant parameters for primary prediction of brain activity in idiopathic tinnitus based on a machine learning application

6-     Persian Version of the Hyperacusis Questionnaire: Psychometric Evaluation and Prevalence Determination

7-     A preliminary study on the reliability of the persian version of the tinnitus functional index in a military population

This session provides a comprehensive review of contemporary tinnitus management strategies, bridging the gap between theoretical research and clinical application. It focuses on evidence-based interventions, including Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), and sound amplification. Attendees will explore diagnostic protocols and personalized treatment planning to improve quality of life for patients with chronic tinnitus.

Outcome Objectives

Upon completion of this session, participants will be able to:

1. Evaluate the efficacy of current therapeutic interventions for subjective tinnitus.

2. Implement multimodal management protocols tailored to individual patient profiles.

3. Apply effective counseling techniques to facilitate habituation and reduce tinnitus-related distress.

Background

Tinnitus is a prevalent condition that often causes significant psychological and functional impairment. Despite the lack of a universal cure, effective management is critical for mitigating patient distress. As our understanding of neuroplasticity and auditory processing evolves, clinicians must stay updated on the latest rehabilitative techniques to provide optimal care for this complex population.