Are you Suffering from any of these symptoms as a result of Tinnitus? Call Today for a Consultation.

    Mild to severe anxiety
    Insomnia
    Triggered fight or flight

  Depression
  Negative thinking
  Crying spells

  Hopelessness
  Suicidal thoughts
  Ringing in the ears

Do you feel your family and friends don’t understand?
Are you growing more isolated?
Do you feel like life will never be the same?
Are you refraining from activities that you enjoy?
Are you fearful of losing your job?
Do you find that your thoughts tend to be negative?

If you answered yes to 3 or more of these questions or symptoms, then we can help.

You may be a candidate for Tinnitus Cognitive Retraining Therapy, or TCRT.  Stephen Geller Katz, LCSW-R, with over 20 years of clinical experience, a New York University graduate, developed Tinnitus Cognitive Retraining Therapy and founded Tinnitus Cognitive Center™ in response to the growing number of Tinnitus sufferers coming to his private practice. He discovered that by helping people to retrain and reinterpret the thoughts around their Tinnitus, anxiety and depression symptoms began to improve. But even more important so did the Tinnitus.

Call us at (646) 213-2321 for a consultation.


See our main site: www.tinnituscognitivecenter.com
Blog Posts are Below:


Monthly Archives: February 2014

Vagus nerve stimulation shows promise for tinnitus treatment NYC

What is Tinnitus?

BestTinnitusTreatmentNYC1Tinnitus is an aggravating condition of unrelenting ringing in the ears. It affects an estimated 12 million people in the U.S., with as many as 2 million suffers finding it difficult to lead a normal life as a result of the noise. Researchers have been investigating the possibility that tinnitus may be related to a disparity in the brain’s processing of hearing and tactile (touch) nerve impulses. Treatments based on external stimulation of these nerves have shown promise for a return to silence.

What is the Vagus nerve?

The Vagus nerve (also known as the 10th cranial nerve) supplies parasympathetic information to and from the medulla. It communicates in one way or another with nearly every part of the neck, face and torso including portions of the Glossopharyngeal nerve (throat and swallowing) and the seventh facial nerve which carries impulses of facial sensation.

What is Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS)?

Vagus nerve stimulation has long been used for the treatment of epilepsy and depression, however new studies have shown that it may also reduce symptoms of tinnitus. In VNS, small electrical pulses are delivered to the Vagus nerve via a pulse generator implanted in the neck. During one study conducted by the University Hospital Antwerp, Belgium, tinnitus patients received two and a half hours of VNS every day for 20 days. The electrical stimulation was paired with audible tones that excluded the hearing frequencies where the tinnitus was active.

Four of the patients in the study experienced a clinically significant reduction in tinnitus by as much as 26 decibels. Three of these sufferers had a 44% reduction in the impact the illness was having on their daily lives. Dr. Sven Vanneste of the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences at UT Dallas was optimistic;

“VNS-tone therapy was expected to be safe because it requires less than 1 percent of the VNS approved by the FDA for the treatment of intractable epilepsy and depression. […] In all, four of the ten patients showed relevant decreases on tinnitus questionnaires and audiological measures. The observation that these improvements were stable for more than 2 months after the end of the 1-month therapy is encouraging.”

What’s next for Vagus Nerve Stimulation and tinnitus?

The team is already working on a larger study where they hope to use more convenient implanted pulse generators so subjects need not come to the clinic for treatments. This study is one of many showing that nerve stimulation, when used in conjunction with cognitive and behavioral retraining, may be the golden ticket for new treatments to relieve the symptoms of tinnitus.

Do you suffer from ringing in your ears? Contact our trained team of professionals for help in finding some peace and quiet!

Tinnitus treatment: What causes tinnitus?

What causes tinnitus?

tinnitus treatment what causes tinnitus p01The causes of tinnitus are varied and often unknown. Sound is ultimately a neurological process stimulated by the mechanical movements in the middle and inner ear. By definition tinnitus is a false signal sent to the brain, and as with any complicated biological mechanism there are multiple points of failure that can create the phantom noise.

Hearing loss is often, but not always accompanied by tinnitus and in most cases the ringing is an independent issue caused by the factors that led to the hearing loss itself. While a single sound event has been known to cause tinnitus, it most commonly results from long-term exposure to loud noises, especially “impact sounds”.

Things such as the repetitive pounding of a jackhammer or constant hum of an engine create a sort of blunt trauma within the inner ear, damaging the delicate hair cells that transcribe sound waves into neural signals. It is not clear whether the resulting ringing comes from a malfunction of the hair cell itself, damage to the underlying nerve or both, but the results are the same; a constant, potentially maddening buzz.

tinnitus treatment what causes tinnitus p02

Pathology of Tinnitus

The pathology of tinnitus can stem from any point in the hearing chain starting with the ear canal and ending centrally with the brain. The eardrum and bones of the middle ear translate the air vibrations into movements of the inner ear membranes. Problems such as infections, cholestomas (growths in the middle ear) and eustachian tube dysfunction can all lead to tinnitus. Otosclerosis for example is an illness affecting as many as 1% of the people in the United States. In otosclerosis, the bones of the middle ear grow over time to become misshapen and interfere with normal hearing function. It is estimated that as many as 60% of cases of otosclerosis are accompanied by tinnitus.

Illnesses of the inner like Meniere’s disease, perilymphatic fistula and infection often also result in tinnitus. In some cases it arises from interference of the mechanical movement of the inner ear, while in others it directly affects the hair cells or nerves. The nerves leading from the inner ear to the brain may also be directly influenced by things such as acoustic neuroma, a small benign tumor that presses against them. This interference leads to specific frequency of tinnitus that is often helpful in its diagnosis.

Less well understood causes of tinnitus may include blood supply and blood pressure, dysfunction of the brain’s hearing centers, allergy, diet and exogenous chemicals like drugs or alcohol. Aspirin and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs) have a long standing reputation for causing transient tinnitus, as do sedatives, anti-depressants, quinines and over 200 other medications.

Overall, the causes of tinnitus are broad. Research continues into both the reasons and treatments for tinnitus.

Tinnitus Cognitive Retraining Therapy supports the latest research pointing to the role of neuroplasticity in helping to lower tinnitus level and intensity. In other words, changing your thought patterns over time actually has the effect of rearranging neurons. This might seem surprising; however, this is the very same mechanism through which all learning occurs. And Tinnitus Cognitive Retraining Therapy harnesses your brain’s learning power by directing it to follow new adaptive pathways that in turn lead to significant relief from tinnitus symptoms over the course of treatment.

If you suffer from tinnitus call today for a free phone consultation to find the best tinnitus treatment that is right for you.

Monthly Archives: February 2014

Vagus nerve stimulation shows promise for tinnitus treatment NYC

What is Tinnitus?

BestTinnitusTreatmentNYC1Tinnitus is an aggravating condition of unrelenting ringing in the ears. It affects an estimated 12 million people in the U.S., with as many as 2 million suffers finding it difficult to lead a normal life as a result of the noise. Researchers have been investigating the possibility that tinnitus may be related to a disparity in the brain’s processing of hearing and tactile (touch) nerve impulses. Treatments based on external stimulation of these nerves have shown promise for a return to silence.

What is the Vagus nerve?

The Vagus nerve (also known as the 10th cranial nerve) supplies parasympathetic information to and from the medulla. It communicates in one way or another with nearly every part of the neck, face and torso including portions of the Glossopharyngeal nerve (throat and swallowing) and the seventh facial nerve which carries impulses of facial sensation.

What is Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS)?

Vagus nerve stimulation has long been used for the treatment of epilepsy and depression, however new studies have shown that it may also reduce symptoms of tinnitus. In VNS, small electrical pulses are delivered to the Vagus nerve via a pulse generator implanted in the neck. During one study conducted by the University Hospital Antwerp, Belgium, tinnitus patients received two and a half hours of VNS every day for 20 days. The electrical stimulation was paired with audible tones that excluded the hearing frequencies where the tinnitus was active.

Four of the patients in the study experienced a clinically significant reduction in tinnitus by as much as 26 decibels. Three of these sufferers had a 44% reduction in the impact the illness was having on their daily lives. Dr. Sven Vanneste of the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences at UT Dallas was optimistic;

“VNS-tone therapy was expected to be safe because it requires less than 1 percent of the VNS approved by the FDA for the treatment of intractable epilepsy and depression. […] In all, four of the ten patients showed relevant decreases on tinnitus questionnaires and audiological measures. The observation that these improvements were stable for more than 2 months after the end of the 1-month therapy is encouraging.”

What’s next for Vagus Nerve Stimulation and tinnitus?

The team is already working on a larger study where they hope to use more convenient implanted pulse generators so subjects need not come to the clinic for treatments. This study is one of many showing that nerve stimulation, when used in conjunction with cognitive and behavioral retraining, may be the golden ticket for new treatments to relieve the symptoms of tinnitus.

Do you suffer from ringing in your ears? Contact our trained team of professionals for help in finding some peace and quiet!

Tinnitus treatment: What causes tinnitus?

What causes tinnitus?

tinnitus treatment what causes tinnitus p01The causes of tinnitus are varied and often unknown. Sound is ultimately a neurological process stimulated by the mechanical movements in the middle and inner ear. By definition tinnitus is a false signal sent to the brain, and as with any complicated biological mechanism there are multiple points of failure that can create the phantom noise.

Hearing loss is often, but not always accompanied by tinnitus and in most cases the ringing is an independent issue caused by the factors that led to the hearing loss itself. While a single sound event has been known to cause tinnitus, it most commonly results from long-term exposure to loud noises, especially “impact sounds”.

Things such as the repetitive pounding of a jackhammer or constant hum of an engine create a sort of blunt trauma within the inner ear, damaging the delicate hair cells that transcribe sound waves into neural signals. It is not clear whether the resulting ringing comes from a malfunction of the hair cell itself, damage to the underlying nerve or both, but the results are the same; a constant, potentially maddening buzz.

tinnitus treatment what causes tinnitus p02

Pathology of Tinnitus

The pathology of tinnitus can stem from any point in the hearing chain starting with the ear canal and ending centrally with the brain. The eardrum and bones of the middle ear translate the air vibrations into movements of the inner ear membranes. Problems such as infections, cholestomas (growths in the middle ear) and eustachian tube dysfunction can all lead to tinnitus. Otosclerosis for example is an illness affecting as many as 1% of the people in the United States. In otosclerosis, the bones of the middle ear grow over time to become misshapen and interfere with normal hearing function. It is estimated that as many as 60% of cases of otosclerosis are accompanied by tinnitus.

Illnesses of the inner like Meniere’s disease, perilymphatic fistula and infection often also result in tinnitus. In some cases it arises from interference of the mechanical movement of the inner ear, while in others it directly affects the hair cells or nerves. The nerves leading from the inner ear to the brain may also be directly influenced by things such as acoustic neuroma, a small benign tumor that presses against them. This interference leads to specific frequency of tinnitus that is often helpful in its diagnosis.

Less well understood causes of tinnitus may include blood supply and blood pressure, dysfunction of the brain’s hearing centers, allergy, diet and exogenous chemicals like drugs or alcohol. Aspirin and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs) have a long standing reputation for causing transient tinnitus, as do sedatives, anti-depressants, quinines and over 200 other medications.

Overall, the causes of tinnitus are broad. Research continues into both the reasons and treatments for tinnitus.

Tinnitus Cognitive Retraining Therapy supports the latest research pointing to the role of neuroplasticity in helping to lower tinnitus level and intensity. In other words, changing your thought patterns over time actually has the effect of rearranging neurons. This might seem surprising; however, this is the very same mechanism through which all learning occurs. And Tinnitus Cognitive Retraining Therapy harnesses your brain’s learning power by directing it to follow new adaptive pathways that in turn lead to significant relief from tinnitus symptoms over the course of treatment.

If you suffer from tinnitus call today for a free phone consultation to find the best tinnitus treatment that is right for you.

Tinnitus Cognitive Center

Stephen Geller Katz, LCSW-R
19 West 34th Street
Penthouse Floor
New York, NY 10001


Call today for a consultation
646-213-2321