Transcranial magnetic stimulation and subjective tinnitus. A review of the literature, 2014-2016

Subjective tinnitus is a symptom in many ENT pathologies, for which there is no curative treatment. It may be poorly tolerated by some patients, who develop attention or sleep disorder or even major anxiety and depression, severely impairing quality of life. Pathophysiological models of the genesis and maintenance of tinnitus symptomatology highlight maladaptive cerebral plasticity induced by peripheral hearing loss. Although not fully elucidated, these changes in neuronal activity are the target of various attempts at neuromodulation, particularly using repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), which has been the focus of various clinical studies and meta-analyses. A recent consensus statement (Lefaucheur, 2014) reported level-C evidence (possible efficacy) for rTMS using low frequency (1 Hz) tonic stimulation targeting the left cerebral cortex. However, many questions remain concerning the use of this technique in everyday practice. The present article reports a recent literature review using the search-terms “tinnitus” and “rTMS” in the PubMed and Cochrane databases for April 2014 to December 2016.