Your experiences when you ask for help with tinnitus

Hi

Is it the case that people who have tinnitus can go to their GP and find lots of useful information about tinnitus and the help there is locally? Or is it just the opposite? What sort of information do you think would be helpful for GPs to have to be able to point people in the right direction?

What have your experiences been when you visited your GP? And what have your experiences been when/if you went to an ENT or Audiology Department or in the UK a Hearing Therapy department?

Have you found them helpful or otherwise? If otherwise, how do you think things could be improved in terms of access and information? If you found them helpful, how did they help you?

It will be really interesting to hear from you if you have an opinion about any of the above, and any ideas that might make useful information about tinnitus and how to "manage it", "cope with it" or just understand it more readily available locally.

The Tinnitus E-Programme was set up because of what appeared to be a dearth of locally accessible help - and I soon discovered this to be the case not only in England and the Home Countries but worldwide. Did you know that the E-Programme is being used by individuals from across the world - it has spread from here in Lancashire, England to Australia, New Zealand, America, India..... and many more countries.

We look forward to reading your stories

Best wishes

Debbie Featherstone
Tinnitus E-Programme
www.tinnituseprogramme.org

The Placebo "problem"

I have come across a very interesting article this week concerning the pharmaceutical companies and the placebo "problem". Although it isn't specifically about tinnitus, it IS about drug trials including those for antidepressants and "mood enhancing" drugs that are sometimes prescribed for people who have distressing tinnitus of course. I have drawn my own conclusions about the information herein, and I have read many other materials that the information in this article supports; it is quite a lengthy piece to read, but I hope you find it informative.

The link is from the Wired UK magazine October 2009 issue and was cited as reading for my MSc. and as such in my personal opinion, gives the article further justifiable credibility. The full URL for the link is: http://www.wired.co.uk/wired-magazine/archive/2009/10/features/the-placebo-problem-big-pharma%27s-desperate-to-solve.aspx

Best wishes to all

Debbie Featherstone
Tinnitus E-Programme
www.tinnituseprogramme.org