By: Celene McNeill, Audiologist,
Healthy Hearing & Balance Care

“Neuromonics” is the buzz- word of the moment in the tinnitus world.

Over the years we have seen different trends to treat tinnitus, some
more successful than others. Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT) has
been one of the most successful approaches used for the last 8
years. Unfortunately however, like other therapies, it has not been
the solution for every tinnitus sufferer, therefore other forms of
tinnitus treatment continue to emerge.

What is the Neuromonics tinnitus treatment?

The Neuromonics tinnitus treatment is based on an auditory
desensitisation protocol developed by Australian audiologist Dr Paul
Davis. It is in agreement with the neuro-physiological tinnitus model
developed by Dr Pavel Jastreboff on which Tinnitus Retraining
Therapy (TRT) was based upon. It uses similar principles to TRT.
The Neuromonics treatment is also comprised of two components:
auditory therapy and counselling, which are used to address the
auditory, psychological and neurological aspects of tinnitus. The aim
of the treatment is to provide habituation to the tinnitus signal by
removing distress and disturbance. An important difference being
that the auditory therapy component of Neuromonics is customised
for each individuals hearing and tinnitus characteristics and not a
“one size fits all” approach like the noise generators used in TRT.
This customisation provides a more effective way of retraining the
auditory neuro-pathways to reduce awareness and disturbance
leading to tinnitus habituation. Non-customised noise generators
may produce auditory signals that an individual hearing system may
not be able to detect, therefore no effect will be obtained.

Why did I get involved with the Neuromonics treatment?

As an Audiologist I have assessed and treated hundreds of tinnitus
patients over the last 25 years. I worked for 10 years as a director
and audiologist at St Vincent’s Hearing & Balance Centre –
incorporating the Tinnitus Clinic. During that time I used different
approaches to assess and treat patients with tinnitus with a varied
rate of success.

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©2005, Celene McNeill