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Tinnitus experts to convene at UB conference
By LOIS BAKER
Contributing Editor
Experts from around the world on tinnitus, the buzzing, ringing or other noise in the inner ear that affects 30 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans and 14 percent of the U.S. population at large, will gather in the Holiday Inn Conference Center in Grand Island tomorrow through Sunday to discuss ways to treat the often disabling condition.
The conference is sponsored by UB's Center for Hearing and Deafness, one of the world's leading hearing research laboratories. UB has the only specialty clinic for tinnitus patients in Western New York.
Tinnitus is described medically as the perception of sound in the absence of an acoustic stimulus. The American Tinnitus Association estimates that more than 50 million Americans experience the condition to some degree. Of these, about 12 million have tinnitus severe enough to seek medical attention and 2 million are so seriously debilitated they can't function normally.
Various therapies help some sufferers, but there is no medically approved standard treatment and no cure.
The conference will concentrate on evaluating effective strategies for assessing tinnitus, the usefulness of various treatments, brain imaging of tinnitus and reviewing scientific advances on the physiological, neurochemical and biological mechanisms that cause tinnitus, according to Richard J. Salvi, professor of communicative disorders and sciences and director of the Center for Hearing and Deafness.
Tinnitus is a major problem among military veterans. The Veterans Benefits Administration reported that at the end of fiscal year 2003, auditory-system disabilities, including tinnitus and hearing loss, were the third-most-common type of disability among the 2.5 million veterans receiving disability payments.
Auditory problems were the second-most-common type of disability among the 157,935 veterans who began receiving compensation in 2003. At the end of 2004, annual compensation payments to veterans with tinnitus as their major disability were nearly $190 million.
Top tinnitus researchers and clinicians from the U.S., Europe, Canada and Asia will be featured speakers. Registrants include persons from Sweden, Germany, Finland, France, Italy, Argentina and Brazil, as well as the U.S. and Canada.
Local sponsors, in addition to the Center for Hearing and Deafness, are the Department of Communicative Disorders and Sciences; the College of Arts and Sciences; the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences; Freed, Maxick & Battaglia CPA; National Fire Adjustment Co.; Tops Supermarket; and Val Kro Inc.
National and international sponsors are Bose Corporation, Ear Technology Corporation, Med-El Corporation, Neuromonics Tinnitus Treatment, NeuroSystec, Oticon, Phonak, Tucker-Davis Technologies, the U.S. Army and Unitron Hearing.