Cognitive Behavioral Group Therapy for Chronic Tinnitus in a German Tertiary Clinical Real-World Setting

Martin Schecklmann (), Franziska C. Weber, Astrid Lehner, Berthold Langguth and Stefan Schoisswohl
Additional contact information
Martin Schecklmann: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Regensburg, Universitätsstraße 84, 93053 Regensburg, Germany
Franziska C. Weber: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Regensburg, Universitätsstraße 84, 93053 Regensburg, Germany
Astrid Lehner: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Regensburg, Universitätsstraße 84, 93053 Regensburg, Germany
Berthold Langguth: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Regensburg, Universitätsstraße 84, 93053 Regensburg, Germany
Stefan Schoisswohl: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Regensburg, Universitätsstraße 84, 93053 Regensburg, Germany

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 6, 1-8

Abstract: Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) was shown to be effective in reducing tinnitus-related distress in numerous controlled trials. Real-world data from tinnitus treatment centers are an important addition to controlled trials for demonstrating the ecological validity of the results from the randomized controlled trials. Thus, we provided the real-world data of 52 patients participating in CBT group therapies during the time period from 2010 to 2019. The groups consisted of five to eight patients with typical CBT content such as counseling, relaxation, cognitive restructuring, attention training, etc. applied through 10–12 weekly sessions. The mini tinnitus questionnaire, different tinnitus numeric rating scales and the clinical global impression were assessed in a standardized way and were analyzed retrospectively. All outcome variables showed clinically relevant changes from before to after the group therapy, which were still evident in the follow-up visit after three months. Amelioration of distress was correlated to all numeric rating scales, including tinnitus loudness but not annoyance. The observed positive effects were in a similar range as effects of controlled and uncontrolled studies. Somewhat unexpected was the observed reduction in loudness, which was associated with distress and the missing association of changes in distress with annoyance as it is generally assumed that standard CBT concepts reduce annoyance and distress, but not tinnitus loudness. Apart from confirming the therapeutic effectiveness of CBT in real-world settings, our results highlight the need for a clear definition/operationalization of outcome measures when investigating psychological interventions of tinnitus.

Keywords: tinnitus; cognitive behavioral therapy; loudness; annoyance; CBT (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/6/4982/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/6/4982/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:6:p:4982-:d:1094780

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().