Tinnitus and Stress
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Tinnitus and stress: the role of cortisol.
IRAS ID
245080
Contact name
Derek Hoare
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 5 months, 4 days
Research summary
Tinnitus is defined as the perception of sound in absence of any external source. The sound can be described as ringing, buzzing, hissing, chirping, or whistling. It can be heard in the ear or the head. It affects one in ten adults in the UK, and it can be severe enough to affect their daily life. About one third of patients linked the onset of their tinnitus to stress and about half of them said that stress makes their tinnitus worse or more bothersome and thus affect their life negatively.
It is not clear if stress leads to tinnitus or tinnitus leads to stress. It is possible that the stress hormone, cortisol, plays a role in this relationship. Therefore, the question of this research is whether cortisol levels are different in tinnitus patients from people who do not have tinnitus (hereafter healthy controls), and whether cortisol secretion in response to stress plays a role in starting or worsening tinnitus. Cortisol will be measured in hair samples.
In this study, patients who have tinnitus for more than six months, also known as chronic tinnitus, and those who presented with tinnitus for the first time within the last six months, or patients with recent-onset tinnitus, will be recruited beside a group of healthy controls. They will be invited for testing and sample collection.
Each participant, tinnitus patient or healthy control, will visit the centre once. After three months, tinnitus patients only will be asked for a second assessment to examine if there is a change in cortisol level after tinnitus management. In total, the study will last for 17 months.REC name
West Midlands - Solihull Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/WM/0283
Date of REC Opinion
15 Oct 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion