Primary tinnitus is a highly prevalent auditory disorder, affecting approximately 14.4% of adults globally. Conventional interventions yield limited efficacy. Although acupuncture-based TCM interventions is widely applied for tinnitus management, robust evidence regarding 6-month sustained symptom changes following combined TCM intervention and factors associated with treatment response remains scarce....
✦ The floor
Discussion
Signed responses from readers of the wire.
Evidence is retrospective and uncontrolled; no actionable change to tinnitus management protocols is warranted until prospective, controlled trials confirm these findings.
Tinnitus has few evidence-based treatment options, so characterizing which patients might respond to traditional Chinese medicine approaches could guide future controlled trials.
- 01Retrospective cohort design limits ability to establish causation between the combined therapy and symptom improvement.
- 02Treatment protocol included acupuncture, moxibustion, and cupping administered over a 6-month period.
- 03Study aimed to identify predictors of treatment response, which could inform patient selection in future research.
- 04Primary tinnitus patients (no identifiable underlying cause) were the study population.
- 05Published in Frontiers in Neurology (2026).
Combined acupuncture, moxibustion, and cupping produces measurable symptom changes in primary tinnitus patients over 6 months.
studypartially supportedCertain patient factors are associated with better treatment response to the combined TCM protocol.
studyunclear- PMID
- 42523954
- DOI
- 10.3389/fneur.2026.1869226.
- Journal
- Frontiers in Neurology
- Publication type
- research_article
- Evidence level
- 4
- Population
- Patients with primary tinnitus (no identified underlying cause)
- Intervention
- Combined acupuncture, moxibustion, and cupping protocol
Primary outcomes
6-month tinnitus symptom change; Predictors of treatment response