The International Tinnitus Journal

Tinnitology: Recent Advances for Both Diagnosis and Treatment

My co-Editors and I are pleased to share with you what we consider to be significant advances in the field of Tinnitology, highlighted by a developing neuropharmacology and advance in instrumentation for both diagnosis and treatment for the symptom of tinnitus. Tinnitology is an integrated discipline of basic science, neuroscience and clinical medicine for the understanding of aberrant auditory phenomena unrelated to an external source of sound [1]. Increasingly, clinical experiences in otology/neurotology are recommending complete cochleovestibular function. The advances described both in basic science and clinical medicine are considered to support the need for ongoing testing both in the initial and followup examinations of the patient with tinnitus. The extent and degree of testing is individual and determined by the clinical course and type of the tinnitus. The introduction of nuclear medicine techniques of PET and SPECT offer significant insight into CNS function and its relationship to the symptom of tinnitus.