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Subjective Tinnitus

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Functional Illness of the Head and Neck

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Abstract

Subjective tinnitus is a common complaint defined as a sound in the head or ears that occurs in the absence of any external acoustical source. It can be perceived as coming from one ear or both. Some of the affected individuals report the sound to be in the head and not in either ear. Especially severe forms can be debilitating for patients. Tinnitus presentation and sound quality have a huge variety. It can be a high-pitched ringing as well as a lowpitched buzzing, clicking, and many other tones and noises. Tinnitus is not one single pathology or disease but rather a symptom of a heterogenous group of pathologies. Although much research has focused on it and much progress has been made, this symptom still remains an enigma. Nowadays tinnitus is seen as a phantom stimulus comparable to phantom pain after limb amputation. This chapter will only discuss subjective tinnitus. Objective tinnitus can be viewed as a non-functional symptom and is outside the scope of this book.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Otolaryngology, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Valerie Dahm

  2. Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Medical Unviersity of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    Valerie Dahm

  3. Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Trung N. Le

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  1. Valerie Dahm
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Correspondence to Valerie Dahm .

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  1. Otolaryngology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada

    Brian W. Blakley

  2. Winnipeg, MB, Canada

    Joan E. Blakley

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Dahm, V., Le, T.N. (2023). Subjective Tinnitus. In: Blakley, B.W., Blakley, J.E. (eds) Functional Illness of the Head and Neck. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12998-8_15

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