Single versus combination treatment in tinnitus: an international, multicentre, parallel-arm, superiority, randomised controlled trial

Tinnitus is defined as the conscious awareness of a tonal or composite noise in the absence of a corresponding external acoustic source. This international multicentre, parallel-arm, superiority, randomised controlled trial investigated whether combination therapies are superior to single interventions in the treatment of chronic subjective tinnitus. Tinnitus patients were recruited from five clinical sites across the EU and randomly assigned using a web-based system, stratified by their hearing and distress level, to single or combination treatment of 12 weeks. Cognitive-behavioural therapy, hearing aids, app-based structured counselling, or app-based sound therapy were administered either alone or as a combination of two treatments resulting in ten treatment arms. App-based treatments were delivered without direct contact or guidance from clinicians. The primary outcome was the difference in the change from baseline to week 12 in the total score of the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI) between single and combination treatments in the intention-to-treat population. All statistical analysis were performed blinded to treatment allocation. 674 patients of both sexes aged between 18 and 80 years were screened for eligibility. 461 participants (190 females) with chronic subjective tinnitus and at least mild tinnitus handicap were enroled, 230 of which were randomly assigned to single and 231 to combination treatment. Least-squares mean changes from baseline to week 12 were -11.7 for single treatment (95% confidence interval [CI], -14.4 to -9.0) and -14.9 for combination treatments (95% CI, -17.7 to -12.1), with a statistically significant group difference (p = 0.034). Cognitive-behavioural therapy and hearing aids alone had large effect sizes, which could not be further increased by combination treatment. No serious adverse events occurred. In this trial involving patients with chronic tinnitus, all treatment arms showed improvement in THI scores from baseline to week 12. Combination treatments showed a stronger clinical effect than single treatment, however, no clear synergistic effect was observed when combining treatments. Instead, we observed a compensatory effect, where a more effective treatment offsets the clinical effects of a less effective treatment. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04663828.

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Nature Communications
Published
2025-11-21
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-66165-1
Citations
2
Primary Topic
Hearing, Cochlea, Tinnitus, Genetics
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article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
2.93

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article

Single versus combination treatment in tinnitus: an international, multicentre, parallel-arm, superiority, randomised controlled trial

Dimitrios Kikidis, José A. López‐Escámez, Patricia Perez‐Carpena, Clara Puga et al.
2 citations
Nature Communications
Hearing, Cochlea, Tinnitus, Genetics
2.93
article

Single versus combination treatment in tinnitus: an international, multicentre, parallel-arm, superiority, randomised controlled trial

Dimitrios Kikidis, José A. López‐Escámez, Patricia Perez‐Carpena, Clara Puga, Evgenia Vassou, Rüdiger Pryss, Milena Engelke, Paula Robles-Bolívar, Johannes Schobel, A. Stege, Alba Escalera‐Balsera, Jorge Simões, Matthias Rose, Nicolas Verhaert, Silvano Gallus, Vishnu Unnikrishnan, Miro Schleicher, Beat Tödtli, Juan Martin-Lagos, Sam Denys, Carlotta Micaela Jarach, Birgit Mazurek, Christopher R. Cederroth, Alvaro Gallego‐Martinez, Nicolas Müller-Locatelli, Rilana Cima, Holger Crump, Patrick Neff, Carsten Vogel, Ilias Trochidis, Sabine Stark, Berthold Langguth, Winfried Schlee, Uli Niemann, Benjamin Boecking, Michael T Koller, Jan Bulla, Leyre Hidalgo-Lopez, Martin Schecklmann, Alberto Bernal-Robledano, Laura Basso, Myra Spiliopoulou, Alessandra Lugo, Susanne Staudinger, Stefan Schoisswohl, Tabea Schiele, Zoi Zachou, Hazel Goedhart, Nikos Markatos, Marta Martínez-Martínez, Hafez Kader, Steven C. Marcrum
article en
2 citations

Abstract

Tinnitus is defined as the conscious awareness of a tonal or composite noise in the absence of a corresponding external acoustic source. This international multicentre, parallel-arm, superiority, randomised controlled trial investigated whether combination therapies are superior to single interventions in the treatment of chronic subjective tinnitus. Tinnitus patients were recruited from five clinical sites across the EU and randomly assigned using a web-based system, stratified by their hearing and distress level, to single or combination treatment of 12 weeks. Cognitive-behavioural therapy, hearing aids, app-based structured counselling, or app-based sound therapy were administered either alone or as a combination of two treatments resulting in ten treatment arms. App-based treatments were delivered without direct contact or guidance from clinicians. The primary outcome was the difference in the change from baseline to week 12 in the total score of the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI) between single and combination treatments in the intention-to-treat population. All statistical analysis were performed blinded to treatment allocation. 674 patients of both sexes aged between 18 and 80 years were screened for eligibility. 461 participants (190 females) with chronic subjective tinnitus and at least mild tinnitus handicap were enroled, 230 of which were randomly assigned to single and 231 to combination treatment. Least-squares mean changes from baseline to week 12 were -11.7 for single treatment (95% confidence interval [CI], -14.4 to -9.0) and -14.9 for combination treatments (95% CI, -17.7 to -12.1), with a statistically significant group difference (p = 0.034). Cognitive-behavioural therapy and hearing aids alone had large effect sizes, which could not be further increased by combination treatment. No serious adverse events occurred. In this trial involving patients with chronic tinnitus, all treatment arms showed improvement in THI scores from baseline to week 12. Combination treatments showed a stronger clinical effect than single treatment, however, no clear synergistic effect was observed when combining treatments. Instead, we observed a compensatory effect, where a more effective treatment offsets the clinical effects of a less effective treatment. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04663828.

Nature CommunicationsVol. 16(1)
Children's Medical Research Institute (AU), Zimmer Biomet (Netherlands) (NL), Universidad de Granada (ES), Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research (IT), National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (GR), University of Zurich (CH), University of Würzburg (DE), Karolinska Institutet (SE), University Hospital Regensburg (DE), Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (DE), Universität der Bundeswehr München (DE), University Hospital of Zurich (CH), Limassol General Hospital (CY), Centre for Biomedical Network Research on Rare Diseases (ES), Instituto de Investigación Biosanitaria de Granada (ES), Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red (ES), Hospital Universitario Virgen de las Nieves (ES), Neu-Ulm University of Applied Sciences (DE), Universitätsklinikum Würzburg (DE), OST - Ostschweizer Fachhochschule (CH), Berlin Institute of Health at Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin (DE), University of Applied Sciences St. Gallen (CH), Istituti di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico (IT), Federal Highway and Transport Research Institute (DE), Hippocration General Hospital (GR), University of Bergen (NO), University of Regensburg (DE), University of Tübingen (DE), University of Twente (NL), Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg (DE), KU Leuven (BE)
European Commission, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Consejería de Salud y Familias, Junta de Andalucía, Junta de Andalucía, Instituto de Salud Carlos III
Openalex Percentile: Top 8%
Hearing, Cochlea, Tinnitus, Genetics
2.93
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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