Effectiveness and Safety of?Ginkgo biloba, Vinpocetine and Piracetam as a Single Agent and Fixed Dose Combination in Patients with Subjective Tinnitus

摘要

Owing to the lack of any standard treatment, subjective tinnitus can be debilitating, manifesting a varied population response to tinnitus management.There is, therefore, an unmet need to optimise the existing treatment options and generate data to help physicians provide the best possible care for individual patients.Aim: To compare the effectiveness and safety of Ginkgo biloba, vinpocetine, and piracetam as a single agent and their Fixed Dose Combination (FDC) in patients with subjective tinnitus.Materials and Methods: Patients with complaints of subjective tinnitus were enrolled in this longitudinal cohort, single centre study which was conducted at Outpatient Clinic of the ENT Department of Justice KS Hegde Charitable Hospital, Karnataka, India.Patients received one of the five treatments, oral route, three times a day, {group 1: Ginkgo biloba (40 mg); group 2: vinpocetine (5 mg); group 3: piracetam (400 mg); group 4: FDC of Ginkgo biloba (60 mg) and piracetam (400 mg); group 5: FDC of Ginkgo biloba (60 mg), piracetam (800 mg) and vinpocetine (5 mg)} and were followed-up for six weeks using a modified version of Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI) and Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), before and after the treatment.Data for safety were also recorded.The association between each attribute and the presence of tinnitus was assessed through chi-square tests.Results: A total of 130 out of 149 enrolled patients completed the study.All the groups showed significant improvement in the severity of symptoms at the end of six weeks as assessed by the modified THI and VAS scores.The improvement was found to be better in group 5 than in other groups, which was evident from the percentage improvement at the end of the treatment compared to other groups.No adverse drug reactions were associated with any of the treatment groups.Conclusion: Though all the drugs were found to be effective and safe in reducing the intensity of subjective tinnitus, FDC of Ginkgo biloba-piracetam-vinpocetine may be considered a better alternative than Ginkgo biloba-piracetam combination and Ginkgo biloba, piracetam, or vinpocetine as single agents.