Assesment of anxiety and depression frequency in patients with subjective tinnitus accompanied by presbyacusis: A pilot study

Abstract

Objectives: Presbyacusis is one of the most common choronic diseases in geriatric patients. Most of the cases have only hearing loss however; accompanying subjective tinnitus might be the predominant symptom in a number of patients and a negative factor on quality of life. In this study, we aimed to investigate the frequency of depression and anxiety in geriatric population who diagnosed with presbyacusis and also suffering from tinnitus.Methods: The study group consisted of patients older than 65 years those admitted to outpatient clinic between the dates of 11.01.2011 and 07.01.2012 with the complaints of hearing loss and tinnitus (n=30). Patients only diagnosed with presbyacusis was chosen as the control group (n=30). Basic laboratory tests were performed to the patients together with pure tone audiometry, speech audiometry and tympanometry. In addition, Beck anxiety and depression questionnaires filled out by interviewing method and the results were compared.Results: The main clinical and laboratory characteristics of the groups were similar. There was no significant difference in education and monthly income levels for each of the two groups. Beck anxiety and depression scores in patients with subjective tinnitus were found to be 17.8±3.6 and 19.8±4.2; in control group were 12.7±3.7 and 13.1±4.0 respectively (p<0.001).Conclusion: According to our preliminary findings insidence of depression and anxiety can be significantly increased in elderly patients who were describing subjective tinnitus with hearing loss. In the management of this group, psychiatric consultation in addition to the conventional hearing aid can increase the success of treatment and patient satisfaction with the correction of accompanying anxiety and depression.

Keywords

• presbacusis
• depression
• anxiety
• tinnitus