Let’s face it, if you’re into music to the point where you read FACT, you probably carry some level of concern regarding tinnitus.

Potential good news is on the horizon, however: The Independent report that a new personalised treatment for the ear condition – which has a history of affecting DJs and clubbers alike – may offer hope to sufferers.

This unusual therapy, known as Acoustic Co-ordinated Reset (CR) Neuromodulation, is designed to “reset” auditory nerve cells in the brain to “stop them misfiring” and in trials has reduced the symptoms of tinnitus in three quarters of patients.

At this point, the £4,500 treatment is only available to private patients, but the positive trial results could pave the way to it being offered freely on the NHS. Acoustic CR Neuromodulation was developed from therapies to neurological diseases – Parkinsons, for example – that involve stimulating neurons with probes sunk deep into the brain. Unlike Deep Brain Stimulation however, all this treatment requires is for patients to wear a set of special headphones, which emit a series of tones designed to disrupt the “rhythmic firing patterns of tinnitus-creating auditory nerve cells”, for a few hours a day.

For those of you worried about a placebo effect at work in the aforementioned test results; a placebo was trialed on another set of patients with no changes reported.

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