Unpleasantness of Amplified Environmental Sound Used in Tinnitus Sound Therapy: A Preliminary Study of Clinical Assessment

摘要

OBJECTIVESIn this study, our aim was to use environmental sounds amplified in the frequency region corresponding to the tinnitus frequency of individual patients and apply them as sound therapy in tinnitus retraining therapy (TRT). In this pilot study, we 1) investigated the unpleasantness of processed environmental sounds using the amplification, attenuation, and removal in different frequency regions; 2) compared the unpleasantness of processed sounds for older and younger groups of participants; and 3) determined the amplification level appropriate for a clinical test.