The role of zinc in the treatment of tinnitus.

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Zinc in the context of tinnitus.

This study was designed to investigate the role of zinc administration in treatment of tinnitus.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 28 patients taking part.

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were adults, middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

Patients with tinnitus were admitted to the ear, nose, and throat clinic of the authors' hospital.

Patients with tinnitus with no know pathologic conditions of the ear, nose, and throat; the mean age of 28 patients receiving zinc was 51.2 years, and that of 13 patients given placebo was 55 years.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized and placebo-controlled.

Because people in this Zinc study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the Zinc group a baseline to be compared against.

Blood zinc levels were measured.

Frequency was detected by audiometry, and loudness of tinnitus was screened by tinnitus match test.

A questionnaire that scored tinnitus subjectively between 0 and 7 was given to patients before zinc treatment.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Auditory Threshold, Tinnitus and Zinc.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and placebo-controlled study of Zinc in 28 patients in people with tinnitus.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

Results are reported in around 8 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2003 (Otology & neurotology : official publication of the American Otological Society, American Neurotology Society [and] European Academy of Otology and Neurotology), a journal based in United States.

More context: the related Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc library page, Tinnitus research.