Suggestion audiometry for non-organic hearing loss (pseudohypoacusis) in children

Pertaining to non-organic hearing loss in children, three goals should be attained: detection of this disease, determination of true hearing levels and information about the possible cause. Recently, objective tests have been used principally for children with non-organic hearing loss; however, these lack the simplicity and convenience of traditional audiometry. A new method, which is referred to as suggestion audiometry, since it is suggested to the patient that hearing will be improved as a result of the test procedure, was developed for the purpose of simultaneously achieving the above-stated three goals. The subjects were 20 patients aged 8-16 years suspected of demonstrating non-organic hearing loss and whose apparent hearing loss had been identified by school hearing examinations. Suggestion pure tone audiometry was useful for the detection of non-organic hearing loss and suggestion speech audiometry was valuable for the determination of true hearing levels. The subjects were classified into four groups according to the test results. We discuss causes of the disease based on the classification of the subjects obtained from this test procedure.