© April 2009 by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.
Introduction
When “Jonathan” took a course of Erythromycin prescribed by his doctor, the last thing on his mind was that this drug would cause him to lose hearing in one ear, give him hyperacusis and balance problems, and result in “horrific bilateral tinnitus.”
No one warned “Eunice” that taking the anti-depressant drug Amitriptyline would result in “screaming tinnitus”, a condition much worse than her original depression.
Without warning, drugs that were prescribed for Jonathan and Eunice to treat other health issues resulted in loud, intrusive tinnitus, making their lives almost unbearable. (These stories are true, although I’ve changed their names.)
Ototoxic Drugs—What Are They?
Ototoxic (OH-toe-TOKS-ik) drugs are those medications that can cause ototoxic (ear damaging) side effects to your ears. Such drugs can cause hearing loss, hyperacusis (normal sounds now too loud), tinnitus and other phantom sounds, and a whole host of balance problems. This does not happen to everyone who takes drugs by any means, but it does happen to a significant number of unfortunate people.
Note this well. Even though a drug’s description lists tinnitus as a side effect, it does not mean that you will develop tinnitus if you take it. Some people do. Many don’t. The problem is that you don’t know into which class you will fall. Therefore, you should learn about the side effects of any drug before you begin taking it. Be particularly cautious until you know that any given drug won’t adversely affect your ears.
Which Drugs Can Cause Tinnitus?
There are more than 870 prescription and over-the-counter drugs from Acebutolol to Zuclopenthixol that can either trigger tinnitus, make existing tinnitus worse or cause another (new) tinnitus sound to appear.
Most of the drug classes have tinnitus-causing drugs sprinkled throughout. For example, antibiotics, painkillers, anti-anxiety and anti-depression drugs, anti-malarial medications, anti-cancer drugs and blood-pressure controlling medicines, to name a few, can all trigger tinnitus.
Is Drug-Induced Tinnitus Temporary or Permanent?
Tinnitus arising from taking ototoxic drugs may, or may not, be permanent. The good news is that tinnitus resulting from taking such drugs is often temporary and goes away in a few days to a few weeks after you stop taking the drug. For example, ototoxic anti-inflammatories such as Aspirin, Ibuprofen and Naproxen generally cause temporary tinnitus (but there are no guarantees).
The bad news is that the resulting tinnitus may be permanent. For example, if you are taking an aminoglycoside antibiotic, you are lucky if the tinnitus stops within a couple of weeks after you finish the drug therapy. For a good number of people, this kind of tinnitus never goes away.
Some Drugs Produce Distinctive Tinnitus Sounds
Drug-induced tinnitus usually first appears as a continuous high-pitched sound and occurs in both ears. However, certain ototoxic drugs produce distinctive tinnitus sounds. For example, tinnitus caused by Acetylsalicylic acid (Aspirin) and Quinine (and related drugs) is generally a high-pitched or hissing sound, and may sound like a continuous musical note. In contrast, tinnitus caused by Erythromycin can produce what sounds like “blowing,” while loop diuretics (such as Furosemide) may produce a middle-frequency sound.
How Soon Will the Tinnitus Occur After Taking a Drug?
Tinnitus may show up very quickly after you begin taking an ototoxic medication, or it may take several days for it to become obvious to you. For example, tinnitus from loop diuretics (Furosemide) may start just minutes after you begin receiving it intravenously. In contrast, tinnitus may not show up until 2 or 3 days after taking an aminoglycoside antibiotic. Strangely enough, with certain drugs such as the Benzodiazepines (a class of tranquilizers), tinnitus may only start after you have stopped taking the drug.
Tinnitus, Hearing Loss and Drugs
Hearing loss and tinnitus often go together. I have seen it reported that about 70% of the people with hearing loss also have tinnitus. Therefore, if you preserve your hearing, you can help yourself avoid unnecessary tinnitus. To this end, you should be aware that there are around 300 drugs associated with hearing loss. Taking such drugs may result in both hearing loss and tinnitus.
Tinnitus often precedes, or accompanies, the hearing loss. In fact, tinnitus is the number one indicator that you may be doing damage to your ears from an ototoxic drug. It also may be the only warning you’ll ever get, so don’t ignore it!
It’s All About Choices—What You Can Do about Tinnitus
Knowledge is power. When you are aware of the many drugs that can damage your ears and the many risk factors that can make you even more susceptible to ototoxic side effects, you are in a position to help yourself protect your precious ears.
If your ears start to ring after you begin taking a new drug or an increased dose of an existing drug, you should immediately report this to your doctor. Together you should then decide what to do—whether to reduce the dose to a level below where it causes tinnitus, or stop taking the medication and try another.
You need to decide for yourself about the trade offs to taking any given medication. For example, “Joan” takes Celecoxib for her arthritis. When she takes it, her tinnitus gets louder, but her arthritis pain improves. She chooses the increased tinnitus (which doesn’t really bother her) over the arthritis pain (which she definitely doesn’t like). That is her choice, and she is content to live with it.
“Harold,” on the other hand, began taking Amitriptyline and soon noticed he had severe tinnitus. His tinnitus was driving him “buggy” so he contacted me for help. I suggested the Amitriptyline might be causing his tinnitus. With his doctor’s permission, he stopped taking the drug. Twelve days later, he joyfully reported that his tinnitus went away. That was his choice and he is glad he made it.
Just because a drug isn’t listed as causing tinnitus, doesn’t mean it can’t. For example, when her doctor doubled her dose of Irbesartan, “Sarah” found her existing tinnitus became noticeably louder. When she complained to her doctor, he reduced her dose and her tinnitus returned to its previous level, yet Irbesartan still is not listed as causing tinnitus.
When it comes to your ears, don’t let ototoxic drugs flip your world upside down! Remain in the driver’s seat and take control by reading, asking questions and making the best choices you can.
(First published in slightly revised form in the April, 2009 edition of
Tinnitus Today, the magazine of the American Tinnitus Association)
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The information in this article was extracted from the second edition of the book Ototoxic Drugs Exposed by the same author. To learn more about drugs that can cause tinnitus and other ear problem, or to learn the specific ototoxic side effects of the 743 ototoxic drugs, 30 herbs and 148 chemicals mentioned in this book, get your own copy of Ototoxic Drugs Exposed.
Hi I’ve been diagnosed with essential hypertension at early age and have been taking Renitec 5mg for 20 years. this was replaced with ENAP 5 mg (although this is the generic). I’v noticed the tinnitus some time after switching to ENAP. I’m not sure if the prolonged use of Renitec (Enalapril) caused the tinnitus and will switching to something else reduce the tinnitus? I’m now 50 and have tinnitus only in the left ear. Thanks
Karen Steenkamp
Hi Karen:
Renitec and ENAP are two different brand names for the generic drug Enalapril. Therefore, theoretically, neither one should cause tinnitus more than the other. in any case, Enalapril is not particularly ototoxic–I don’t think very many people get tinnitus from taking this drug. Unfortunately, all the drugs in this class can cause tinnitus, so switching to a different drug probably won’t make that much difference. But you can always ask your doctor to switch to a different one and see what happens.
Cordially,
Neil
How often does tinnitus disappear if it began after stopping a drug? Thank you.
Hi Victoria:
It depends on the drug. With some drugs, you can expect the tinnitus to disappear in a few days. With other drugs, it typically is permanent.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi Dr Bauman,
I have been on Mirtazapine for 2 and a half years.
A week after coming off it I developed tinnitus and have had it for nearly 2 weeks.
Do you have any experience with Mirtazapine causing Tinnitus and whether it is temp or perm?
Thank you
Paul
Hi Paul:
I’ve heard from one other person who had a somewhat similar experience as you. This lady took Mirtazapine which resulted in her getting tinnitus. However, when she stopped taking the Mirtazapine, her tinnitus went through the roof.
I do not know whether the resulting tinnitus is temporary or permanent. However people that have hearing loss from using Mirtazapine have reported that when they stopped taking the Mirtazapine their hearing slowly returned. This gives me hope that tinnitus might also be temporary.
Cordially,
Neil
I took acetazolamide last Tuesday to prepare for a wedding in the mountains above 10,000′. I took one dose in the morning. Took another late afternoon. Tinnitus began within hours of the second dose. It has not stopped. I took another on Wednesday morning. Had blurred vision. Called my doc. She said don’t take another until the blurred vision resolved. She wasn’t concerned about the tinnitus. She recommended taking 1/2 that night. I took 1/4. Felt horrible again (each dose of acetazolamide made me feel very drugged.) So, over two days I took 3 1/4 pills. The tinnitus has been constant since the second dose. Nonstop high pitch in one ear. I’m wondering when it will go away. For the most part I can ignore it. At night I’m concentrating on the fan noise. It does wake me up earlier in the morning. If I’m tired, I’m able to fall asleep. I’m doing a purification (vegan 10 days, elimination diet of many things for a total of 21 days along with protein supplements and green food supplements) in order to ‘detox’. (StandardProcess.com ) I’m hoping this might help rid whatever was in the acetazolamide that was toxic to my ear. Of course I’m concerned like everyone else that this is permanent. My question is if the tinnitus is same frequency and intensity 8 days later, and I only had 3 1/4 pills, do I have a good chance for it to go away? Does it decrease frequency and intensity over time or just suddenly disappear? It is constant.
Oh, I need to mention I did not go to the mountains until 2 days later.
Hi Karen:
Acetazolamide (Diamox) can indeed cause tinnitus. Unfortunately, I don’t have any information on this drug as to whether the resulting tinnitus is temporary or permanent so I can only speculate on your questions.
As I tell so many people, whether your tinnitus goes or stays is not the real thing to be concerned about. You are really concerned whether your tinnitus bothers you or not and this is something that you have a large amount of control over. If you think (worry) that your tinnitus is going to affect your well-being in any way, then your tinnitus will tend to get worse and bother you more and more.
Conversely, if you do NOT think that your tinnitus is a threat to your well-being, then your tinnitus will tend to fade into the background and become less and less intrusive. Even though it may still be there, it will not bother you.
Thus, you’d do well to treat your tinnitus as just another meaningless environmental sound you hear every day such as the sounds your fridge makes. You totally ignore them so that if I asked you whether your fridge is running or not, you’d have to stop and specifically listen for it. That’s how you need to treat your tinnitus sounds.
When you do this, you will likely find that hours may go by without your being aware of your tinnitus.
I think it is still too soon to say your tinnitus will be permanent or not. I’d give it another couple of weeks and if it has not changed in intensity, it may be permanent, but if you do the above, it should eventually fade mostly into the background and not bother you.
I think generally, tinnitus reduces in volume and slowly fades away, but for some people it is definitely sudden. They go to bed with their tinnitus and wake up and hear blessed silence. Their tinnitus disappeared overnight. With some drugs it is the former and with others it is the latter. As I said, I have no information on how tinnitus from Acetazolamide acts.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi:
Can you tell me what anxiety/depression/bipolar medications cause tinnitus. My ears have suddenly started screaming. Not all the time though. I’ve started a new drug in the last 3 months, Vraylar, but didn’t notice this till a month ago.
Thanks!
Hi Courtney:
Most, if not all, the anxiety/depression/etc drugs can cause tinnitus. Some are much more likely to cause it than others.
When you start a new drug that can cause tinnitus, the tinnitus may appear within minutes, or hours or days or weeks or months or even years later. So it is entirely possible that Vraylar caused your tinnitus 2 months later. Unfortunately, I don’t have any information on the ototoxic properties of Vraylar at this point so I can’t tell you the likelihood of it being the cause of your tinnitus.
However, if you go off the Vraylar for a couple of weeks and your tinnitus goes away or drops considerably in volume, that is a good indication that the Vraylar is the cause of your tinnitus.
Cordially,
Neil
Hello Dr. Neil,
Recently I took duloxetine and after 3 weeks I develop tinnitus in my left ear. After 4 months of using this medication I ended up looking for antother doctor because mine refused to switch the medication. I found another doctor and he switched the medication for Prozac. It’s been 2 weeks and the tinnitus doesn’t stop? How long for me to get rid of this symptom? Is it temporary or is it permanent? I realy need an answer because I am going crazy because of this.
I tried to fix my depression and ended up with another while still having the first one, this is not fair at all! Anyway, my tinnitus will go away now that I’ve changed duloxetine to fluoxetine? Thanks best wishes for you all
Hi Andieia:
Sorry for the lat reply, but your post went into the spam pile.
Duloxetine (Cymbalta) causes hundreds and hundreds of cases of tinnitus, not to mention hundreds and hundreds of cases of hearing loss and other ototoxic side effects. It is not a drug that is easy on your ears.
The problem is that once tinnitus starts, it may not go away when you stop taking this drug. So there is no guarantee that it will go away. The problem is that Fluoxetine (Prozac) is not much better. It also causes tinnitus in hundreds and hundreds of people plus all the other side effects. Its just that it doesn’t affect as many hundreds of people as does Duloxetine.
There is no way to know for sure whether your tinnitus will be temporary or permanent. Only time will tell. However, you do have a great teal of control over whether you let your tinnitus bother you or you habituate to it so it is not a problem whether you hear it at ang given time or not.
If I was in your shoes and needed an antidepressant, I’d forego the drugs and take the herbal St. John’s Wort. It is not ototoxic, is available without a prescription at many drug stores, health food stores or On-line.
A number of studies have shown that it works as well as, or better, than prescription drugs for mild to moderate cases of depression.
If you choose to get it, just be sure it says on the bottle “standardized” and then give what it is standardized to. You want something that says, “standardized to 0.3% (or up to 0.7%) hypericin” which is the active ingredient.
You’ve discovered one of the problems of many drugs–they don’t really fix the first problem, but generate other–and often worse–probems. It’s not fair–but that is the way it is. That is why I say only use drugs as a last line of defense, not the first line of attack.
Cordially,
Neil
I had this ringing sound in my ears which started 3 days ago, but I had to go see a skin specialist about my pimple/eczema problem and he prescribed to me erythromycin, antibiotics to aid in my pimple/eczema problem. Now the ringing sound has increased especially when Im sleeping. Would you recommend me to stop the antibiotics?
As from what I know the antibiotics need to be taken over a course of 2 months, 2 tablets both day and night to work efficiently
Hi Edwin:
Personally, I’d never take an antibiotic for longer than 2 weeks, if that. The longer you take them, the greater chances you have of getting ototoxic side effects.
Erythromycin, a macrolide antibiotic, is mildly to moderately ototoxic so you want to be careful of your ears when taking it. It’s obvious you are sensitive to it as your tinnitus has already jumped up a notch. Hearing loss is reported about twice as often as tinnitus, so you want to watch your hearing as well.
How you use this information is up to you, but if I were in your shoes, I sure wouldon’t take an antibiotic for pimples–and I had lots when I was a teen.
Cordially,
Neil
took 8 pepto bismol each for 5 days and stopped as soon I got tinnius. it’s been 10 days I still have it.. does it go way? how long may it take sometime? anything can be done with this?
Hi Dilipm79:
Pepto-Bismol is a brand of bismuth subsalicylate. All the salicylates can cause tinnitus. The good news is that often tinnitus from salicylates is temporary. I’d give it at least two weeks from the day you last took the Pepto-Bismol and see how your tinnitus is, but it could take longer. In the meantime, ignore your tinnitus and focus on things other than your tinnitus so you don’t make your tinnitus worse.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi Neil, thanks for taking time to respond. It’s been exactly a month and I still have it. Dosage I took was 8x for 5 days.. Sometimes I feel the intensity is coming slightly low but sometime I hear it clearly.. like a cricket and hissing sound.. It’s very audible during nights and silent places..
Trying to get myself distracted ..but worried that this could be permanent since it already been a month.. 🙁
Did it go away for few ppl after months? After reading all posts here I understood that it is the very prolong usage that would cause damage.. mine was just 5 days. 🙁
Hi Dilpm79:
If you worry about your tinnitus, you will just make it worse and it will not go away. You need to put it out of your mind and focus on the loves of your life and let it fade away.
Typically, the longer you use a drug, the more damage i may cause, but this is not a given. For example, for some drugs, one person can have permanent tinnitus from just taking one pill, and other people have to take multiple pills for weeks before they see any ototoxic side effects and still others never get obvious side effects. It doesn’t seem fair, but that is just the way it is. So you cannot go on what other people experience. You may fit the “average” and then again, you may be totally different.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi Neil,
Thanks again for tour time and guidance..will start to completely ignore it ..
Regards …
Very small dose of 2.5 mg tadalafil caused me tinnitus within 4-5 hours and also sensitivity to loud sounds.
It’s been been 4 days.
I have taken it before this time around I took or in AM on empty stomach.
Please suggest what should I do.
Hi Sean:
I’d give it time and see if the tinnitus and sound sensitivity (hyperacusis) fade away over the next few weeks. Sometimes this is permanent and sometimes it is only temporary. I don’t know which group you will fall into. And to be on the safe side, don’t take any more tadalafil until your ears return to normal or you may just make things worse.
Cordially,
Neil
Hello
Thank you for this article.
I developed mild tinnitus in both ears and am trying to figure out what it. is. I took Myo-Inositol for 2 days just before it started – it gave me terrible headaches so I stopped. Do you think it could possibly be that? And if so, what’s the prognosis?
My ears also both hurt quite a bit!
Thank you
Amanda
Hi Amanda:
I don’t have much specific information on Inositol and tinnitus–not even a handful of cases. So it is possible that it caused your tinnitus, but in the grand scheme of things, it is probably not too likely. But for you specifically, since you also got a headache from this drug, I certainly wouldn’t rule it out.
Cordially,
Neil
I am experiencing sudden and increasing Tinnitus. It occurred to me that I have recently started taking pepto bismol and serrapeptase/nattokinase for different reasons. After reading this article, I will stop the pepto immediately.
A couple of questions: how long would it typically take for the tinnitus to stop? Is it typically permanent? Also, have you heard of tinnitus symptoms being caused by serrapeptase/nattokinase enzymes?
Sorry – one more question on the pepto-tinnitus connection. I have been also experiencing mild vertigo – not spinning but a feeling of floating on the water. This has come on with the tinnitus. Can vertigo sensations accompany tinnitus caused by medication?
Thank you VERY much for writing this article and for the favor of a reply. I am grateful and hopeful that this is the cause of my recent issue. I have a hearing test scheduled and an eval with an otolaryngologist.
Hi Stephanie:
Bismuth subsalicylate (Pepto-Bismol) is listed as causing tinnitus in some people. Although not all that common, if you are sensitive to the salicylates, that could well be the origin of your tinnitus. This would also be true if you are taking higher doses of it, or if you are taking other salicylates such as aspirin at the same time.
I don’t have specific information on how long tinnitus from taking bismuth subsalicylate lasts after you stop taking it, but if it acts similar to aspirin, you could expect it to fade away in two weeks or less on the average.
Bismuth subsalicylate is also listed as causing both dizziness and vertigo so your “floating” symptom could well be also a result of taking this drug. And it can cause hearing loss too. Hopefully, if it occurs, it will prove to be temporary, as it typically is with aspirin.
Cordially,
Neil
I’ve not heard anything reported about serrapeptase/nattokinase enzymes causing tinnitus so I don’t think taking them is the cause.
Hi Neil,
I took a small bottle of bismuth subsalicylate about 1 month ago. I noticed tinnitus and mild vertigo. The tinnitus was extreme at the time but has since subsided somewhat, but the mild vertigo has stayed. In you experience will this improve further after a month? Can I expect the vertigo to go away or does vertigo sometimes go hand in hand with tinnitus, ie if the tinnitus never fully goes away the vertigo could stay permanently as well?
Hi Gabe:
When you say you “took a small bottle of bismuth subsalicylate” did you mean all at once, or spread out over several days?
Both tinnitus and vertigo are side effects of this drug and the more you take at a time, the higher the risk of developing ototoxic side effects. Actually, I rate bismuth subsalicylate as a class 2 (mildly ototoxic) drug under normal conditions. So unless you took high doses, or are particularly sensitive to salicylates, I wouldn’t have expected any side effects to show up.
What do you call mild vertigo?
I would have expected the vertigo to go before your tinnitus. So something is going on that you haven’t told me or aren’t even aware of yourself.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi Neil,
The bottle was spread out over a few days- I didn’t exceed the dosing recommendations. Perhaps I am just sensitive, I haven’t had aspirin or any other salicylates that I’m aware of and that was the only time I’ve had the Pepto.
Maybe vertigo is too strong of a word- my balance has felt off and I feel a little dizzy at times. It started when the tinnitus was very strong. Both have become less, but haven’t gone away completely.
Best,
Gabe
Hi Gabe:
Maybe the tinnitus is not from the Pepto bismol at all.
Vertigo is a spinning or rocking sensation–there is a sense of movement. So probably dizziness is a better description. It could have been from the drug, or not.
It’s good that they are becoming less (and hopefully less and less) as time goes by.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi Dr, I was taking a small dose of fluvoxamine since November. I started to get tinnitus about 3 weeks ago and stopped. I am still having the constant fan and chimes in my ears. Is there anything I can do? Do you think it will go away?
Hi Lee:
Some people that get tinnitus from taking Fluvoxamine is temporary, but others find it proves to be permanent. If that happens, then you want to learn how to successfully deal with your tinnitus so that it no longer bothers you when you hear it. This is called becoming habituated to your tinnitus.
In order to habituate to your tinnitus you must not think of your tinnitus as a threat to your well-being, but rather as a totally useless, unimportant background sound that it is safe to ignore. Then ignore it by focusing on the loves of your life.
If you focus on your tinnitus, your limbic system sees it as a threat to your well-being and one of its jobs is to bring all threats to your conscious attention. Thus it turns up its internal volume so you can’t ignore it–and you don’t want this to happen.
When you habituate to your tinnitus, whether you hear it or not doesn’t even matter. Its no big deal–just there. For example, my ears are ringing away right now because I’m thinking about tinnitus as I write this–but who cares. It doesn’t bother me and hours will go by with my not even being aware I have tinnitus. So if your tinnitus does not go away, it doesn’t have to be a problem.
Cordially,
Neil
Hi Neil, just wanting some support/guidance at the moment. I recently started taking Ritalin 5mg 2x per day over the last 2 weeks. I did notice some ringing in the ears, but nothing constant and nothing that would bother me. I have since ceased the medication for 4 days and the ringing had become more intense and is now constant. Could the tinnitus be a side effect of this medication? And if so would it likely be permanent? If not, do you have any idea as to how long it will last for? I’m really concerned at the moment
Hi John:
Tinnitus is one of the more commonly-reported side effects of taking Methylphenidate (Ritalin), so your tinnitus most likely was caused by this drug.
I don’t have any data on whether the tinnitus is permanent or temporary. It’s still early to determine whether it might be permanent or not. I’d give it at least 2 weeks and see if the volume drops in that time. That would be a good sign. If you still have the tinnitus at the same volume by the end of two months, it would appear your tinnitus would be permanent.
In the meantime, you can work to head this off by learning to effectively deal with your tinnitus. First, you need to quit thinking of your tinnitus as a threat to your well-being in any way. Instead, think of it (and thus treat it) as a totally unimportant, useless, background sound that is safe to ignore–then ignore it by focusing on the loves of your life.
If you have problems doing this, you can play some background sounds to reduce the contrast between your tinnitus and total silence. This makes it easier for you to ignore.
Cordially,
Neil
I recently took Kaopectate for a day and a quarter. The next morning I woke up with unbearable ringing in my ears. If has been a week and though it has calmed down since the first day, I still have it. It is off and on. I read a few articles on the internet that if you take 60mg of prednisone for 10-14 days and then taper, there is a good chance it will go away. The one caveat is you have to do it within two weeks of onset. I have one week left. I am trying to get an appt with an ENT but it’s not easy. Waiting to get a call back. Have you ever heard of using prednisone for hearing loss and tinnitus?
I would like to add that yesterday I went to Patient First since I was still waiting for drs office to get back to me. She said she never heard of prednisone being used for tinnitus. She did give me a six day course of 4mg prednisone for the congestion in my ears. It’s day 2 and I notice a slight improvement
Hi Margie:
Kaopectate is a brand name of bismuth subsalicylate. It is a salicylate as is aspirin. The good news is that if you get tinnitus from taking aspirin, when you stop taking it, the tinnitus typically fades away in a few days. The same thing can occur with Kaopectate as you are finding.
Personally, I’d take nothing for it and let it disappear on its own as the Koapectate gets out of your bloodstream.
Doctors prescribe prednisone for many things related to ears, but there’s little proof that it makes any difference. But the patient is happy because the doctor is doing something.
I’ve never heard of a 4 mg dose. Normally, they give a 40 or 60 mg dose. Maybe you meant a 40 mg dose.
Since your ears were getting better day by day, you’ll never know whether the Prednisone helped or not. I really doubt you need it or that it is helping.
Cordially,
Neil
Thank you for your speedy reply. I am confused though. In one of your replies to bismuth salicylate you said it could take at least two weeks for tinnitus to go away. In another you said it should be a few days.
I know I’m not supposed to let it bother me but I am very anxious. It has been a week and it’s all I can think of. It constantly feels like there is water in my ears. This is terrible
Hi Margie:
Take predictions with a grain of salt. No one can tell exactly how soon tinnitus will go away. When I say 2 weeks that is more generic–it could be more or less depending on the make-up of the person.
So it will likely go away in a few days, but give it at least 2 weeks before you worry its not going away.
When you focus on tinnitus like you are and worrying about it, it may never go away. That is why it is so important to remain calm and focus on the loves of your life, not on your tinnitus.
Cordially,
Neil