TY  - JOUR
A1  - Schlee, Winfried
A1  - Simoes, Jorge
A1  - Pryss, Rüdiger
T1  - Auricular acupressure combined with self-help intervention for treating chronic tinnitus: a longitudinal observational study
T2  - Journal of Clinical Medicine
N2  - Tinnitus is a phantom sound perception in the ears or head and can arise from many different medical disorders. Currently, there is no standard treatment for tinnitus that reliably reduces tinnitus. Individual patients reported that acupressure at various points around the ear can help to reduce tinnitus, which was investigated here. With this longitudinal observational study, we report a systematic evaluation of auricular acupressure on 39 tinnitus sufferers, combined with a self-help smartphone app. The participants were asked to report on tinnitus, stress, mood, neck, and jaw muscle tensions twice a day using an ecological momentary assessment study design for six weeks. On average, 123.6 questionnaires per person were provided and used for statistical analysis. The treatment responses of the participants were heterogeneous. On average, we observed significant negative trends for tinnitus loudness (Cohen's d effect size: −0.861), tinnitus distress (d = −0.478), stress (d = −0.675), and tensions in the neck muscles (d = −0.356). Comparison with a matched control group revealed significant improvements for tinnitus loudness (p = 0.027) and self-reported stress level (p = 0.003). The positive results of the observational study motivate further research including a randomized clinical trial and long-term assessment of the clinical improvement.
KW  - tinnitus
KW  - acupressure
KW  - self-help
KW  - ecological momentary assessment
KW  - stress
Y1  - 2021
UR  - https://opus.bibliothek.uni-wuerzburg.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/24620
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-246209
SN  - 2077-0383
VL  - 10
IS  - 18
ER  -