Question: I acquired tinnitus about three years ago when a friend invited me to a rock concert. He brought hearing protection and did not tell me I needed to do so. The ringing in my ears never went away.

I went to the doctor and he said you have tinnitus and there is no cure, just live with it.

A month after the trauma, I developed severe TMJ and tensing in my hands. Three years later, I still have the severe TMJ, carpal tunnel syndrome, arthritis in my knuckles, tremors in my sleep, and I tense my body and starting to have prostate problems. All these symptoms are created from my tensing in my sleep from the constant ringing in my ears.

After hearing that 10% of tinnitus patients commit suicide, is this why? If I have these symptoms now, in 10 yrs will I have 8 more tinnitus-related symptoms.

Right now, I am seeing a naturalpathic doctor since traditional doctors just say "live with it". He has been giving my some "potions" but I feel they really don't help.

Any suggestions? Others who have these other effects?

Answer: please see the abstract below from the Journal of the American Academy of Audiology. The senior author, Gary Jacobson, is a universally respected PhD audiologist who is currently the Chairman of the Department of Audiology at Vanderbilt University, having recently moved to Nashville from Detroit.

smn

J Am Acad Audiol. 2001 Nov-Dec;12(10):493-6.

A search for evidence of a direct relationship between tinnitus and suicide.

Jacobson GP, McCaslin DL.

Division of Audiology, Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, Michigan 48202, USA.

The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether there exists in the scientific literature support for a cause and effect relationship between tinnitus and suicide. MEDLINE and HealthStar databases were queried using the combined search terms "tinnitus" and "suicide" over the time period from 1966 to 2001 for MEDLINE and from 1975 to 2001 for HealthStar. Foreign-language reports were included if they had been translated into English or, at least, if they contained an English-language translation of the abstract. A total of three published reports pertinent to this topic were recovered. None of these reports showed a causal relationship between tinnitus and suicide. More often, patients who had attempted or committed suicide had significant preexisting psychiatric conditions, the most common being depression. Accordingly, it is our conclusion that nowhere in the existing literature is there any evidence supporting a cause and effect relationship between tinnitus and suicide.