Tinnitus May Be Eased With The Help Of The 'Love Hormone'

Brazilian researchers have found something interesting that would help people suffering from tinnitus or the chronic ringing in the ears. Apparently, those suffering from tinnitus can manage it by spraying oxytocin hormone in their nose.

Oxytocin has always been known as the "love hormone" because of its ability to promote social connections. It may also have a surprising contribution to help relieve the annoying and most of the time disturbing noises brought about by tinnitus.

"Oxytocin has actions in the brain and the ear that may help in tinnitus treatment and provide immediate relief," said lead researcher Dr. Andreia Azevedo. She is with the department of otolaryngology at the Universidade Federal de Sao Paulo. However, one hearing specialist was not convinced that oxytocin has the ability to help relieve the condition.

According to Newsmax, even Azevedo said that it's still unclear how the hormone works to relieve tinnitus. She thinks that it may affect the ear with regard to the regulation of fluid which can be found in the inner ear, and also affect the part of the brain responsible for the production of dopamine, which is a neurotransmitter.

"For some patients, tinnitus disappeared or reached a non-distress level," Azevedo said. "As usual in tinnitus treatment, in some patients the tinnitus kept low, and for some, it raised after drug therapy ended."

Medical Xpress reported that although oxytocin appears to be safe, the long-term effects it can have are still not known. Azevedo explained that during their study, there weren't any side effects when they used oxytocin. However, larger studies are still needed to establish the role of oxytocin in the treatment of tinnitus.

It was also reported that the research team is in the process of doing additional studies to determine if increasing doses of oxytocin can improve and prolong the response of the hormone. Azevedo said: "We expect that these trials will raise the interest in this drug and result in larger randomized trials."

For the new study, the team randomly assigned 17 people with an average age of 63, who are suffering from tinnitus, to puffs of either oxytocin or a placebo (distilled water) in each nostril. The participants of the study were then asked to check their symptoms 30 minutes after administration and then after 24 hours, reported Health Day.

Findings according to the research team revealed that patients who received oxytocin reported a significant reduction in the ringing in their ear, compared to those who were given the placebo. Dr. Darius Kohan, a chief of Otology/Neurotology at Lenox Hill Hospital and Manhattan Eye, Ear, and Throat Hospital in New York City said: "It's good people are doing research on this," he said, "because there isn't any one treatment that works very well."

However, Kohan still remains on the fence about using oxytocin to treat tinnitus because so many treatments have already been tried and have failed. "Whenever there is a medical condition and there are a thousand different treatments, it means that none of them work, because if there was one that worked we would all be doing it," he said. Results of this small trial are not sufficient to draw any conclusions about oxytocin as a treatment, Kohan added.