Tinnitus Treatment: Evidence and Guidelines

It is a hallmark of modern medicine that it claims to be evidence based. This means that clinical decisions are based on research findings. Standardized algorithms have been developed to translate research findings into clinical recommendation. These involve a systematic review of the literature together with meta-analytic aggregation of research findings. The certainty of evidence of the accumulated research findings is evaluated by using methodological criteria. Clinical recommendations are formulated based on the results from research under consideration of the methodological evaluation of how these results were obtained. In this chapter, we summarize the evidence for efficacy and safety of the various therapeutic interventions for the treatment of tinnitus. We present the most important clinical guidelines and discuss the strength and weaknesses of the evidence-based approach for the management of tinnitus.