Chronic complex tinnitus: Does day care unit-based short-term psychotherapy help? [Chronisch komplexer Tinnitus: Hilft eine teilstation?re Kurzzeitpsychotherapie?]

摘要

Patients and methods: In this prospective study, the effectiveness of an intense 5-day multimodal treatment delivered to 93 patients was assessed using a pre–post design. Tinnitus-specific effects were captured by the Mini-TQ-12 measurement instrument and psychiatric comorbidity assessed using the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI). In statistical analyses, t-tests, χ2 tests and Wilcoxon signed ranks tests were performed to determine statistical significance; effect sizes (ES) were calculated according to Cohen’s d.Results: The pre–post difference in Mini-TQ-12 was highly significant in t-test (p < 0.001); the ES was small (ES = 0.45). In BSI, the pre-post difference in the Global Severity Index (GSI) as a global measure was also highly significant in t-test (p < 0.001); ES was small (ES = 0.40). Nonparametric tests (Wilcoxon test) confirmed these results.Conclusion: This study demonstrates the statistically significant effectiveness of a multimodal therapeutic approach. Moreover, the results indicate that patients could benefit from more intensive therapeutic interventions.Background: Results of empirical research on the effectiveness of psychotherapeutic treatment of chronic complex tinnitus are still unclear and require further studies for clarification.Objective: The objective of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of multimodal treatment of patients with chronic complex tinnitus in a day care unit setting.