Tinnitus: present and future

The phenomena we call tinnitus have been reported for more than 5000 years. Still, the quest for effective treatments continues. Tinnitus is a symptom and not a disease. It has been defined as the subjective perception of sound occurring in the absence of externally evoking auditory stimuli. Tinnitus may correlate with alterations in spontaneous auditory neural activity, and a connection appears to exist between many forms of stress and tinnitus. Tinnitus is neither simply nor narrowly represented in the nervous system, and contemporary research has focused on central and peripheral generators of tinnitus. Because tinnitus has many forms and accompanies many pathologies, it is understandable that no single effective management has emerged. Many management options may be required in the future to address the number and diversity of tinnitus cases. These management options likely will be the result of present neurophysiologically or pharmacologically based investigations.