Can Your Personality Influence Tinnitus Treatment?

Summary by John A. Coverstone, AuD

Tinnitus is an auditory phenomenon heard only by the individual. Therefore, it should not be surprising that psychological distress and disorders are generally understood to be associated with tinnitus distress. Tinnitus treatment must account for the psychological needs of the patient and be targeted to each individual. A distinct characteristic of all people is personality. Although this is not formally assessed or used in directing tinnitus treatment, it would be fair to say that personality to some extent influences most clinical treatment.

A group of researchers at the University of Regensburg in Germany and the University of Zurich in Switzerland studied personality traits and how they relate to treatment outcomes for tinnitus patients. 1 The researchers note that several models of personality traits exist, but they chose one that outlines five personality traits: agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, neuroticism, and openness. These were measured using a 60-item questionnaire called the Big Five Index 2 (BFI2). Age and gender were also explored as factors associated with tinnitus questionnaire scores.

The researchers looked at the effects of personality on tinnitus by comparing tinnitus questionnaire scores of patients who visited a tinnitus clinic between 2012 and 2017. The same tinnitus questionnaires were completed by patients in 2018, as was the BFI2. The Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI) and Tinnitus Questionnaire (TQ) were used to determine any changes in tinnitus distress between the time of visiting the clinic and 2018. In all, 388 patients were included in the analysis. They were separated into three groups: “clinically improved,” “clinically stable,” or “clinically worsened.”

The researchers found that patients who scored higher in neuroticism were generally associated with worsening tinnitus as measured with both the THI and the TQ. Higher rating of extraversion (which is the opposite of introversion) was associated with improvement in tinnitus distress over time on the THI (but not on the TQ) when compared with scores of those in the “stable” or “worsened” groups. Other personality traits were not reported to have significant association with tinnitus.

The other item that predicted changes in tinnitus scores was time. Each patient’s initial visit to the clinic was anywhere from 2012 to 2017. Therefore, data from initial visit to re-test in 2018 measured change in tinnitus distress over a one-year period, five-year period, or length of time in between. This is a likely reason why time was a predictor of improvement in tinnitus.

These findings suggest that a patient’s personality is related to changes in tinnitus over time. The same personality traits were generally associated with changes in tinnitus whether the patient pursued treatment or not. With additional study in this area, clinicians may be able to tailor tinnitus treatment to the personality type of a patient in order to achieve better outcomes.

1 J. Simões, W. Schlee, M. Schecklmann, B. Langguth, D. Farahmand, & P. Neff. (2019). Big five personality traits are associated with tinnitus improvement over time. Scientific Reports, 9, 18234.