Recording of tinnitus psychoacoustic measurements: an integrative literature review

ABSTRACT

Purpose:

to review both the national and international literature as well as to describe the methods used to collect psychoacoustic measurements in tinnitus patients.

Methods:

the current integrative review was conducted on articles in specialized national and international journals, in both the Portuguese and English languages, available in the PubMed/Medline, BVS - LILACS and SCIELO databases. The following keywords and descriptors were used: hearing, tinnitus, psychoacoustic measurements, acuphenometry, and assessment, in both the Portuguese and English languages. The retrieved articles were read and selected for the review according to the eligibility criteria, which included the use of psychoacoustic measurements in tinnitus patients and the presence of a detailed methodological description of the protocol employed, in individuals with normal hearing and those with hearing loss.

Results:

a total of 12 articles, in which psychoacoustic measures were used for the characterization and the measurement of tinnitus in individuals with normal hearing and in those with hearing loss, were reviewed. The main findings were associated with the sample characterization and the way in which the psychoacoustic measures were performed. Conclusion:given the grouping of several protocols for tinnitus evaluation, which were determined following an integrative literature review, a great heterogeneity in the methods used to perform psychoacoustic measurements for tinnitus assessment for both clinical and scientific purposes was noted.

Keywords:
Hearing; Tinnitus; Hearing Loss; Psychoacoustics