Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Smartphone-Guided Educational Counseling and Self-Help for Chronic Tinnitus

Winfried Schlee
* ORCID logo ,
Patrick Neff
ORCID logo ,
Jorge Simoes
,
Berthold Langguth
,
Stefan Schoisswohl
ORCID logo ,
Heidi Steinberger
,
Marie Norman
ORCID logo ,
Myra Spiliopoulou
ORCID logo ,
Johannes Schobel
ORCID logo ,
Ronny Hannemann
ORCID logo ,
Rüdiger Pryss
ORCID logo
Version 1 : Received: 29 January 2022 / Approved: 31 January 2022 / Online: 31 January 2022 (14:00:09 CET)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Schlee, W.; Neff, P.; Simoes, J.; Langguth, B.; Schoisswohl, S.; Steinberger, H.; Norman, M.; Spiliopoulou, M.; Schobel, J.; Hannemann, R.; Pryss, R. Smartphone-Guided Educational Counseling and Self-Help for Chronic Tinnitus. J. Clin. Med. 2022, 11, 1825. Schlee, W.; Neff, P.; Simoes, J.; Langguth, B.; Schoisswohl, S.; Steinberger, H.; Norman, M.; Spiliopoulou, M.; Schobel, J.; Hannemann, R.; Pryss, R. Smartphone-Guided Educational Counseling and Self-Help for Chronic Tinnitus. J. Clin. Med. 2022, 11, 1825.

Abstract

Tinnitus is an auditory phantom perception in the ears or head in the absence of a corresponding external stimulus. There is currently no effective treatment available that reliably reduces tinnitus. Educative counseling is a treatment approach that aims to educate patients and inform them about possible coping strategies. For this feasability study, we implemented educational material and self-help advice in a smartphone app. Participants used the educational smartphone unsupervised during their daily routine over a period of 4 months. Comparing the tinnitus outcome measures before and after smartphone-guided treatment, we measured changes in the tinnitus-related distress, but not in tinnitus loudness. Improvements on the Tinnitus Severity numeric rating scale reached an effect size of .408, while the improvements on the THI were much smaller with an effect size of .168. Analysis on the user behavior showed that frequent and intensive use of the app is a crucial factor for treatment success: participants that used the app more often and interacted with the app intensively, reported a stronger improvement of the tinnitus. Between study allocation and final assessment, 26 of 52 participants dropped out of the study. Reasons for the dropouts and lessons for future studies are discussed in this paper.

Keywords

tinnitus; self-help; ecological momentary assessment; ehealth; smart-phone; intervention

Subject

Social Sciences, Psychology

Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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