Suchergebnisse

Tinnitus is a phantom auditory sensation that reduces quality of life for millions worldwide and for which there is no medical cure. Most cases are associated with hearing loss caused by the aging process or noise exposure. Because exposure to loud recreational sound is common among youthful populations, young persons are at increasing risk. Head or neck injuries can also trigger the development of tinnitus, as altered somatosensory input can affect auditory pathways and lead to tinnitus or modulate its intensity. Emotional and attentional state may play a role in tinnitus development and maintenance via top-down mechanisms. Thus, military in combat are particularly at risk due to combined hearing loss, somatosensory system disturbances and emotional stress. Neuroscience research has identified neural changes related to tinnitus that commence at the cochlear nucleus and extend to the auditory cortex and brain regions beyond. Maladaptive neural plasticity appears to underlie these neural changes, as it results in increased spontaneous firing rates and synchrony among neurons in central auditory structures that may generate the phantom percept. This review highlights the links between animal and human studies, including several therapeutic approaches that have been developed, which aim to target the neuroplastic changes underlying tinnitus.

Zusammenfassung
Hintergrund
Das Syndrom einer leichten Verhaltensbeeinträchtigung ("mild behavioral impairment syndrome", MBI) ist definiert durch das Auftreten anhaltender neuropsychiatrischer Symptome im Alter. Die Mild-behavioral-impairment-Checkliste (MBI-C) dient der Erfassung von persistierenden neuropsychiatrischen Symptomen, welche die Präsenz des MBI definieren.

Ziel
Erarbeitung einer deutschsprachigen Version der MBI‑C und Beurteilung der klinischen Anwendbarkeit.

Material und Methoden
Im Austausch mit dem federführenden Autor der englischen Originalversion wurde eine deutsche Version erstellt. Die Praktikabilität der Anwendung wurde im Rahmen einer Anwendbarkeitsstudie an einer Kohorte von 21 stationären alterspsychiatrischen Patienten überprüft. Dabei wurden die Compliance der Patienten, die Verständlichkeit, der Zeitaufwand, das Vorgehen bei der Auswertung und die Unterschiede zwischen den Angaben der Patienten und der Angehörigen beurteilt.

Ergebnisse
Die erstellte Übersetzung der MBI‑C gilt als offizielle deutsche Version und kann auf https://mbitest.org heruntergeladen werden. Alle Patienten beantworteten alle 34 Fragen vollständig, die Verständlichkeit zeigte sich als sehr gut, der durchschnittliche Zeitaufwand lag bei 16 min. Es zeigten sich z. T. bedeutsame Unterschiede zwischen den Angaben der Patienten und der Angehörigen.

Diskussion
Das MBI kann bei einem Teil der Personen mit neurodegenerativer demenzieller Erkrankung das ansonsten präsymptomatische Stadium markieren. Die MBI‑C könnte somit bei der Früherkennung von neurodegenerativen Demenzen helfen. Diese Hypothese kann mithilfe der hier präsentierten sprachlich lokalisierten Version der MBI‑C auch im deutschsprachigen Raum zukünftig überprüft werden.

Background: Tinnitus Talk is a nonprofit online self-help forum. Asking inactive users about their reasons for discontinued usage of health-related online platforms such as Tinnitus Talk is important for quality assurance. Objective: The aim of this study was to explore reasons for discontinued use of Tinnitus Talk, and their associations to the perceptions of Tinnitus Talk and the age of users who ceased logging on to the platform. Methods: Initially, 13,745 users that did not use Tinnitus Talk within the previous 2 months were contacted and the response rate was 20.47% (n=2814). After dataset filtering, a total of 2172 past members of Tinnitus Talk were included in the analyses. Nine predefined reasons for discontinued usage of Tinnitus Talk were included in the survey as well as one open question. Moreover, there were 14 predefined questions focusing on perception of Tinnitus Talk (usefulness, content, community, and quality of members' posts). Mixed methods analyses were performed. Frequencies and correlation coefficients were calculated for quantitative data, and grounded theory methodology was utilized for exploration of the qualitative data. Results: Quantitative analysis revealed reasons for discontinued use of Tinnitus Talk as well as associations of these reasons with perceptions of Tinnitus Talk and age. Among the eight predefined reasons for discontinued use of Tinnitus Talk, the most frequently reported was not finding the information they were looking for (451/2695, 16.7%). Overall, the highest rated perception of Tinnitus Talk was content-related ease of understanding (mean 3.9, SD 0.64). A high number (nearly 40%) of participants provided additional free text explaining why they discontinued use. Qualitative analyses identified a total of 1654 specific reasons, more than 93% of which (n=1544) could be inductively coded. The coding system consisted of 33 thematically labeled codes clustered into 10 categories. The most frequent additional reason for discontinuing use was thinking that there is no ...