The effects of tinnitus and/or hearing loss on the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised test

This study aims to evaluate the psychological attitudes of patients with tinnitus by using The Symptom Checklist-90-Revised and to investigate the relationship between hearing loss and attributed psychological attitudes.

142 subjects (73 female, 69 male) divided into 4 groups: Group 1 (32 patients with tinnitus and hearing loss-), Group 2 (38 patients with tinnitus), Group 3 (36 patients with hearing loss), Group 4 (36 healthy subjects without tinnitus and hearing loss-control group). The Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R) test was used to detect the subjects' tendency for psychological problems due to tinnitus and/or hearing loss.

Mean values of Somatization (SOM), Obsessive-Compulsive (O-C) and Additional Scale (AS) were higher than cut-off points of 1.00 for Groups 1 and 2 (tinnitus and/or hearing loss). In patients with tinnitus and/or hearing loss, SOM, O-C, Depression (DEP), AS and Global Severity Index (GSI) were significantly higher than patients with hearing loss and control group. By multiple linear regression analysis, tinnitus was the significantly detected confounding factor for increase of SOM, O-C, Interpersonal Sensitivity (I-S), DEP, Hostility (HOS), Paranoid Ideation (PAR), AS and GSI parameters.

It was concluded that tinnitus could induce some psychological symptoms such as depression; and this is independent of hearing loss. Tinnitus with or without hearing loss is the essential factor for causing psychological problems in patients. Tinnitus duration is not important in the scene of psychological status of the patients. This result shows that, age, gender (male, female), chronic or acute tinnitus experience, and having hearing loss did not cause too much problems in patients. But tinnitus experience in every form (for the present study, intermediate level subjective tinnitus) is significantly important confounding factor for affecting psychological status of the patients.