Silicon Valley Hearing is now a Mahana Tinnitus Provider

What is the Mahana Tinnitus App? The Mahana Tinnitus App is a self-administered, self-guided program designed to deliver Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) via a smart phone app to lessen the distress individuals experience with tinnitus. Mahana Tinnitus was created and developed by Mahana Therapeutics, a group of individuals (including psychology and medical advisors) to help empower people with chronic conditions to lead fuller lives through digital therapies.

What is Tinnitus?

Tinnitus is a sound heard within the ears or head that does not have an external sound source outside of the brain and body. Although bothersome, tinnitus usually is not a sign of something serious or life-threatening. Around 50 million people in the United States experience tinnitus. Approximately 30% of those individuals feel their tinnitus is significant enough to impact their daily life. Tinnitus is often described as:

• Ringing, buzzing, hissing, swooshing, crickets
• Constant or Intermittent
• Low, mid or high-pitched

Tinnitus is merely a symptom that can be triggered by a myriad of medical and non-medical conditions such as:

• Changes in the auditory pathway (hearing system)
  • Cerumen (earwax)
  • Ear infections
  • Otosclerosis
  • Meniere’s Disease
  • Tumors
  • Noise Exposure
  • Ototoxicity (drugs, medications, chemotherapy)
  • Presbycusis (age-related hearing loss)
• Changes from elsewhere in the body other than the ear
  • Cardiovascular
  • Autoimmune
  • Head/Neck Injury
  • TMD/TMJ
  • Psychological (depression, anxiety, stress)
  • Dietary
  • Smoking
  • Alcohol
  • Sleep disorders (sleep apnea, insomnia)
• Combination
  • Noise exposure and TMJ/TMD
  • Presbycusis and pharmacological changes
  • Autoimmune and head injury
  • Many other possible combinations!

In most people, tinnitus occurs because of changes in the brain resulting from reduced input from the ear, most frequently due to damaged cochlear hair cells. In some individuals, tinnitus may be a symptom of an underlying medical condition. It is important to follow up with a healthcare professional to get more information about it. Audiologists are the best professionals to assess tinnitus, determine its impacts on quality of life and make individualized recommendations for management. Sometimes, based on audiological findings, individuals may be referred back to their primary care providers to follow up on possible medical-related conditions.

What Can Be Done for Tinnitus Distress?

After review of detailed medical history and a thorough audiological and tinnitus evaluation in our office, Dr. Novick will provide individualized solutions best matched to the patient. Aside from recommended sound therapy approaches to help reduce the contrast of tinnitus and the immediate quiet environment, Dr. Novick provides education on reducing an individual’s personal and emotional reaction to the tinnitus sound. Along with Tinnitus Retraining Therapy protocol that focuses on the habituation of reactions to the tinnitus, which can lead to habituation of tinnitus perception, Dr. Novick recommends the Mahana Tinnitus app for daily learning to help further reduce and eliminate the established negative connections between the auditory system and the limbic and autonomic nervous systems in the brain. The end goal: to reclassify the tinnitus percept to a category of a neutral and unimportant signal.

The Mahana Tinnitus program can help individuals further along in their habituation journey. The goals of the Mahana Tinnitus program is to:

• Provide strategies to improve focus, sleep, and daily function
• Teach skills to reduce overall stress and impact on daily life
• Retrain the brain using neuroplasticity to be less bothered by tinnitus sounds
• Change thinking patterns and emotional responses toward the tinnitus signal.

Mahana Tinnitus program is broken down into daily lessons lasting 10-15 minutes per lesson. Individuals only need to complete one lesson per day. Through daily and consistent participation, the individual will complete the Mahana Tinnitus program over a period of 6 weeks. However, we all know that “life can get in the way” and sometimes a day or two may be skipped. The app will provide a gentle daily reminder of “Have you done your Mahana Tinnitus lesson today?” The app is active for a full year beyond the initial activation date.  The program is interactive and provides individuals with skills that need to be practiced daily to guide the individual to develop personal tinnitus management strategies and help to reduce the overall impact of tinnitus on daily life.

What Does the Research Show?

Results from a single-arm, open label pilot clinical trial (N = 97 participants) revealed: 

1. Clinical participants assigned to receive Mahana Tinnitus experienced significant reductions in tinnitus severity measured vial the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI) and Tinnitus Primary Function Questionnaire (TPFQ)
2. 61% of participants experienced clinically meaningful improvement in TFI score after 6 weeks
3. 65% reported notable impression of change, with improvements reported across tinnitus-related domains like sleep, distress, and coping
4. No treatment-related adverse effects were reported
5. Mahana Tinnitus received a good usability rating.

If you are interested in freeing your mind and body from tinnitus distress, please reach out to our office to schedule your comprehensive tinnitus consultation to determine if Mahana Tinnitus is a good fit for you.

Citations

 Shargorodsky, J., Curhan, G.C., & Farell, W.R. (2010). Prevalence and Characteristics of Tinnitus Among U.S. Adults. American Journal of Medicine, 123(8), 711.

 Henry, J.A., Roberts, L.E., Caspary, D.M., Theodoroff, S.M., & Salvi, R.J. (2014). Underlying Mechanisms of Tinnitus: Review & Clinical Implications. Journal of the American Academy of Audiology, 25(1), 5-22.

 Scott, L.L., Tyler, R., Schreiner, A., Jenkins, K., Troggio, T., Traynor, R.M., Coverstone, J., & Henry, J.A. (2024). Pilot Clinical Trial: Self-Guided CBT-Based Smartphone Program for Tinnitus Management.  Poster presented at 2024 American Auditory Society Meeting, Scottsdale, Arizona.

Mahana Clinical Trial