[Neuro-otology counseling for patients with chronic tinnitus]

The diagnosis and treatment of tinnitus requires professional competence in neuro-otology and also an appropriate and comprehensible clarification for the individual patient.According to the Tinnitus-Guidelines of 2015 the counselling by the physician in charge is essential regarding the individual aetiopathogenesis, as well as the patient's individual coping mechanism with tinnitus, the prognosis, exacerbating factors and also as to the damaging impact on the ear.Therefore the therapeutic aim is to depathologize the symptom tinnitus and to provide an explanation and a context in the contemporary approved and scientific conception.The requirements of the guidelines are necessary and reasonable, however it is often very difficult to implement this in the daily routine in a doctor´s practice, especially in the outpatient medical care.Subsequently we are going to present a four-to-five step-model to communicate the most important issues - analogous the guidelines and coherent for the outpatient or clinic patient in the one-to-one or group medical counselling. This furthermore addresses aspects of mental health.For that diagnosis as well as evaluation the mini-tinnitus-questionnaire (Mini-TF12) is available. It can be filled out and interpreted via homepage of the German Tinnitus-Liga (DTL) without charge.