In this retrospective case series, we described the heterogeneous clinical features of unilateral subjective paroxysmal tinnitus. While symptom improvement was observed among carbamazepine-treated cases regardless of MRI findings, the presence of an untreated subgroup, lack of a control group, and limitations of outcome measures warrant caution against causal claims of efficacy. Future studies with prospective comparative designs and validated quality-of-life endpoints are needed.
Nishio et al. (Sat,) studied this question.