Drug side-effects on audiological and vestibular testing

Are they a malingerer? Or perhaps they are inattentive? It may be their drugs! Robert DiSogra considers the side-effects of medication on the test subject. The audiogram serves many purposes in clinical practice. For the audiologist, it helps to differentiate...

The effects of polypharmacy in the elderly

Another pill to cure the ill? Alec Lapira discusses the warning signs of polypharmacy in the elderly population. Polypharmacy in the elderly Polypharmacy – defined as the use of five or more medications – occurs in 20–37% of older people...

Evidence-based practice: management of sudden sensorineural hearing loss

What is the current evidence for medical management of sudden sensorineural hearing loss? Jessica Choong and Stephen O’Leary present a review of the current evidence of treatments options. Sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) causes significant distress and, in many cases,...

Audiological monitoring in ototoxicity - Are we doing enough?

In this article Ghada Al-Malky explores the dichotomy of life-saving, yet hearing loss-causing medication, and questions whether the hearing healthcare community is doing enough to prevent preventable hearing loss. Ototoxicity is the damage to hearing and / or balance functions...

A place for everything and everything in its place: the practicalities of randomised clinical trials

Will this pill cure tinnitus? Bonnie Millar describes one trial that has investigated the possibility whilst describing the path of drug trials in the UK. Background In the last quarter of 2014, a clinical trial (QUIET-1; ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02315508) commenced...

The search for pharmacological treatments for hearing loss and tinnitus

Where are we in our search for a hearing restoration grail? Nicola Robas leads us through the map pieces discovered in creating a pharmaceutical answer to hearing loss and tinnitus. Together, hearing loss and tinnitus affect over one in six...