Can Marijuana Decrease Tinnitus Distress?

Summary by John A. Coverstone, AuD

Use of marijuana is increasing in

the United States as more states legalize the drug for medical and/ or recreational use. As a result, people are able to experiment with the drug as a home remedy for a wide array of conditions. However, marijuana continues to be illegal by federal statute and formal research is therefore limited as a result of the unavailability of federal funding.

A pair of researchers at Stanford University/Stanford Ear Institute wanted to see whether an association between marijuana use and tinnitus could be established. 1 They used existing data from the 2011–2012 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in the United States. They chose that year’s survey because it was the latest data set that included hearing information at the time. (Note: The 2015–2016 NHANES data also includes hearing testing and questionnaires but was published November 2019 — after this study was completed.)

They pulled survey data for individuals aged 20–69, and included information from 2,160 individuals in their study. In addition to hearing test results and tinnitus, the authors looked at data for history of noise exposure, smoking, marijuana use, alcohol and other drug use, mood, depression, and more.

A relationship was found between tinnitus and marijuana use among people who used marijuana at least once per month in the preceding 12

months, with such individuals being more likely to experience bothersome tinnitus than the general population in the survey.

When considering people who used marijuana, tinnitus was not found to be associated with either frequency or amount of the drug used. When looking at individuals with tinnitus, marijuana use was not associated with severity or frequency of tinnitus occurrence. Frequency of marijuana use also had no association with severity of tinnitus or how often tinnitus occurred. Similarly, the amount of marijuana used was not associated with severity or frequency of tinnitus occurrence. The authors further noted that tinnitus was not associated with use of other drugs, including alcohol, cocaine, heroin, or methamphetamines.

The researchers also conducted a multivariate analysis, which is when the relationship between one condition and multiple others is analyzed (prior analysis was univariate — relating one piece of data to one other piece of data). This analysis continued to show a relationship between tinnitus and marijuana use, but many of the other associations indicated during univariate analysis no longer showed a strong correlation with tinnitus. These included recreational noise exposure, age, smoking, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, aspirin use, and diabetes.

Other factors that were associated with tinnitus and marijuana use after multivariate analysis included hearing loss, history of work noise exposure, depression, and anxiety. This means that these factors occurred more frequently in subjects with tinnitus than in the general population of the survey.

The nature of the association between tinnitus and these conditions cannot be discerned from these data. Instead, results indicate only that these conditions occurred more frequently in subjects with tinnitus than they did within the general population. For instance, the association between having tinnitus and using marijuana does not imply which caused the other — or even whether there is a causeeffect relationship between the two traits. It may be possible that they are each related to a separate influence. Further research is necessary to establish any cause-effect relationship that may exist. However, the presence of a significant association between tinnitus and marijuana does indicate the need for additional research into benefits or risks that may occur with use of the drug.

1 Z. Qian & J. Alyono. (2020). An association between marijuana use and tinnitus. American Journal of Otolaryngology, 41(1), 102314.