Hearing Aid Amplification Schemes Adjusted to Tinnitus Pitch: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Background/Objectives: Hearing aids can be used as a treatment for tinnitus. There are indications that this treatment is most effective when the tinnitus pitch falls in the frequency range of amplification of the hearing aid. Then, the hearing aid provides masking of the tinnitus. Alternatively, it has been suggested that a gap in the amplification around the tinnitus pitch would engage lateral inhibition and thereby reduce the tinnitus. Methods: To test these ideas, we conducted a randomized controlled trial. Patients were fitted with hearing aids using three different amplification schemes: (1) standard amplification according to the NAL-NL2 prescription procedure, (2) boosted amplification at the tinnitus frequency to enhance tinnitus masking, and (3) notch-filtered amplification at the tinnitus frequency to engage lateral inhibition and suppress tinnitus. The goal was to compare the boosted and notched amplification schemes to standard amplification. The primary outcome measure was tinnitus handicap as measured by the Tinnitus Functional Index (TFI). The trial was designed as a double-blind Latin square balanced crossover study. Eighteen tinnitus patients with moderate hearing loss were included. All of them were experienced hearing aid users. After two weeks of initial adaptation to the new hearing aids with standard settings, each setting was tried for four weeks. Results: There was an average reduction of 6.9 points on the TFI score after the adaptation phase, possibly due to a placebo effect. The TFI score did not differ significantly from the standard setting after using the notched or the boosted settings. Although notched amplification performed better than boosted amplification, this difference did not reach the clinical significance level. Regardless of the TFI outcomes, most participants had an individual preference for a particular setting. This preference was approximately uniformly distributed across the three amplification schemes. Conclusions: Notch-filtered and boosted amplification did not provide better tinnitus suppression than standard amplification. The individual preferences highlighted the importance of tailor-made approaches to hearing aid amplification in clinical practice. Further studies should explore the differences among patient's tinnitus and their preference for a hearing aid setting.