[Treatment of tinnitus. New perspectives].
A FREQUENTLY MISUNDERSTOOD AFFECTION: Because of its high prevalence and the considerable alteration it often provokes in quality of life, tinnitus aurium is an important public health problem. Current treatment of tinnitus aurium is limited by the lack of knowledge of the physiopathological processes that generate it.
Analysis of the data in the literature and our recent works suggests that external ciliated cells of the cochlea are probably not a major source of tinnitus, but an important role is attributed to lateral efferent innervation and glutamatergic synapses situated beneath the internal ciliated cells.


CONCLUSIONS
Experimental models of tinnitus are presently being developed in order to test these hypotheses, and pharmacological clinical trials should be set-up during the year to come, in order to apply these fundamental results to humans.
Puel
Jean-Luc
JL
Laboratoire de Neurobiologie de l'Audition-Plasticité synaptique, Inserm U. 254 et Université de Montpellier I, Montpellier.
Nicolas-Puel
Cécile
C
Londero
Alain
A
Bonfils
Pierre
P
D003051:Cochlea / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D013570:Synaptic Membranes / Q000502:physiology; D014012:Tinnitus / Q000188:drug therapy*