The Crown-Crisp Experiential Index in patients complaining of tinnitus

The Crown-Crisp Experiential Index (CCEI) was administered to 472 patients complaining of tinnitus who took part in a multi-centre study on tinnitus masking (Hazell et al., 1985). This inventory includes scales of anxiety, phobic anxiety, obsessionality, somatic anxiety, depression and hysteria. The scores on the CCEI scales for patients with and without 'dizziness' as an additional symptom were compared. In the non-dizzy patients, scores on the anxiety and depression scales were consistently elevated compared with the published normative values. In the dizzy patients scores on all scales except Hysteria were elevated. The most pronounced and consistent difference between the dizzy and non-dizzy patients was in the Somatic Anxiety scale. The presence of dizziness also obscured the relationship between the CCEI scales and measures of tinnitus. In contrast, however, hearing disability did not appear to influence the results.