Source: DGNews  |  Posted 9 years ago

By Paula Moyer
Special to DG News

SAN DIEGO, CA -- September 25, 2002 -- More than half of patients who live with chronic pain also experience tinnitus, and the longer they live with pain, the more likely they are to have tinnitus, according to research reported here September 23rd at the 106th annual meeting of the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation.

However, the study found that patients with chronic pain report less disability from the tinnitus than patients usually do.

Dr. Jon E. Isaacson, an assistant professor of otolaryngology and head and neck surgery at Pennsylvania State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, in Hershey, Pennsylvania, United States, said the high incidence of tinnitus among people with chronic pain warrants further study, and also warrants efforts to relieve these patients of one more stressor.

"Just because they report less severe disability [than tinnitus patients typically do] doesn