Cochlear, brain stem, and cortical evoked responses in nonorganic hearing loss

After complete but inconclusive audiometric evaluation, 30 suspected cases of nonorganic hearing loss (NOHL) were referred to this laboratory for a complete battery of electric response audiometry tests (recording of cochlear, brain stem and cortical evoked responses). The chief advantages of these tests lie in their ability to more objectively confirm the presence of NOHL and to elicit the true threshold of the subject. Such tests along with psychiatric evaluation, indicate that NOHL can be subdivided into categories, examples of which are presented and discussed: malingering or conscious simulation of deafness for obvious personal gain, and psychogenic deafness in which an emotional problem (e.g., combat stress, anxiety) is unconsciously converted into a hearing problem in an escape mechanism. The basis of NOHL in some cases may be a mixture of both conscious components (malingering) and unconscious components (psychogenic). Several cases of NOHL are really nonorganic overlays or exaggeration on a small to moderate organic hearing loss. The psychogenic hearing loss seen in soldiers with combat neurosis may have originally developed as a psychogenic exaggeration of a temporary threshold shift induced by the noise of battle. Thus objective electrophysiological hearing tests and psychiatric evaluation have contributed to a better understanding of NOHL.