Subjective Tinnitus
Mechanism:
Inner ear contains thousands of small hairs and when they are vibrating with sound waves and the cells, they convert neural signals in to acoustical vibrations. The sensing cells and vibratory cells are connected to each other through the neural feedback loop that is regulated by brain.
The important principle in evolution of tinnitus is to remember tinnitus is symptom and not a disease. The first step is that rule out the medical conditions which are responsible for causing the tinnitus. The causes of subjective tinnitus are hyperlipidemia, hypertension, electrolyte abnormalities, some medications and thyroid. These causes can be treatable.
Causes:
There are number of causes but mostly results from otologic disorder and the same condition is also responsible for causing the hearing loss. Noise provoked hearing loss is very common cause and resulting from the loud noises. Some of the causes of subjective tinnitus are given below:
- Otologic problems and hearing loss:
- Conductive hearing loss
- External ear infection
- Acoustic shock
- Cerumen (earwax) impaction
- Middle ear effusion
- Superior canal dehiscence
- Sensorineural hearing loss
- Excessive or loud noise
- Presbycusis (age-associated hearing loss)
- Meniere's disease
- Acoustic neuroma
- Mercury or lead poisoning
- Ototoxic medications
- Analgesics:
- Antibiotics:
- Chemotherapy and antiviral drugs:
- Loop diuretics:
- Others:
- Chloroquine
- Quinine
- Psychedelic drugs:
- Diisopropyltryptamine (DiPT)
- 5-Methoxy-diisopropyltryptamine
- Conductive hearing loss
- Neurologic disorders:
- Chiari malformation
- Multiple sclerosis
- Head injury
- Metabolic disorders:
- Thyroid disorder
- Hyperlipidemia
- Vitamin B12 deficiency
- Psychiatric disorders:
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Other causes:
- Tension Myositis Syndrome
- Fibromyalgia
- Hypertonia (Muscle Tension)
- Thoracic outlet syndrome
- Lyme disease
- Hypnogogia
- Sleep paralysis
- Glomus Tympanicum