Dear Colleagues,

Subjective tinnitus is a symptom often caused by hearing loss but can also emerge without clinically relevant changes in the auditory system. Between 10% and 20% of the population of Western countries are affected by this auditory phantom percept, which is often more disturbing than the actual disease (i.e., the hearing loss). Tinnitus can cause central nervous co-morbidities like depression, anxiety, or insomnia, which can lead to social isolation and may even result in suicide. The socioeconomic costs directly related to subjective tinnitus in European countries like the Netherlands or Germany can amount to 6.8 billion or 32.8 billion euros per year, respectively. Even though the individual and social pressure is high, no successful treatments for most forms of this phantom percept have been found. This is mainly because we do not fully understand the neurophysiological mechanisms leading to the development and chronification of the mispercept.

This special issue will focus especially on this development of tinnitus due to hearing loss and how it may be clinically treated by, e.g., either restoring hearing with classical and new approaches or directly modifying neuronal responses to reduce or even supress the percept. Additionally, studies focusing on coping strategies or other psychological methods to reduce the burden of the patients with hearing loss are welcome to be submitted. Overall, this special issue aims to collect successful strategies to treat subjective tinnitus or at least reduce its psychological pressure in patients with hearing loss.

Dr. Konstantin Tziridis
Guest Editor

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• tinnitus treatment
• coping strategies
• hearing loss
• clinical studies