NCT01205906

Comparison of an Internet-based Guided Self-help and a Group Therapy for Chronic Tinnitus

Comparison of the Efficacy of an Internet-based Self-help Training and a Well-established Outpatient Group Therapy for the Treatment of Chronic Tinnitus: A Randomized Controlled Trial

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 128 (actual)
• Sponsor: Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

The aim of this study is to compare the efficacy of an internet-based guided self-help training for chronic tinnitus with a well-established outpatient group therapy and a discussion forum group.

Detailed description

Chronic tinnitus can result in significant psychological suffering and reduce quality of life. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has been shown to be effective in decreasing the impairment caused by tinnitus. One recent way delivering CBT is an internet-based self-help intervention. Internet interventions for patients with chronic tinnitus, developed by Swedish scientists, showed promising results (Andersson et al., 2002; Kaldo et al., 2007; Kaldo et al., 2008). The main purpose of this study is to compare the efficacy of this internet-based self-help training for chronic tinnitus with a traditional well-established CBT group treatment and with a discussion forum group in a randomized controlled trial. Secondary goals are a process evaluation of both treatments, the identification of predictors of treatment success, an estimation of the cost-effectiveness of each treatment and the validation of the Tinnitus Cognitions Questionnaire (T-Cog; Hiller \& Haerkötter, 2005).

Conditions

• Tinnitus

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Internet-based guided self-help for tinnitus	Internet-based self-help for tinnitus: provided via Internet, duration of 10 weeks
BEHAVIORAL	Cognitive-behavior group therapy for tinnitus	Cognitive-behavior group therapy for tinnitus: weekly group sessions of 90 minutes, duration of 10 weeks
OTHER	Internet discussion forum	Tinnitus-specific internet discussion forum over 10 weeks (no therapeutic intervention)

Timeline

• Start date: 2010-05-01
• Primary completion: 2011-03-01
• Completion: 2012-03-01
• First posted: 2010-09-21
• Last updated: 2014-04-03

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Germany