Pure tone auditory thresholds can change according to duration of interrupted tones in patients with psychogenic hearing loss.
CONCLUSIONS
Pure tone auditory thresholds can change according to duration of interrupted tones in patients with mild to severe psychogenic hearing loss (PHL).


OBJECTIVE
To examine how the duration of stimulus tones affects the hearing thresholds of patients with PHL.


METHODS
Twelve patients with PHL (21 ears) were enrolled in this study. We initially measured their hearing thresholds using interrupted tones with a duration of 2 s and equal length of on-time and off-time, 225 ± 35 ms, respectively. After a 10 min interval, we measured their hearing thresholds using the same interrupted tones conditions lasting 5 s. The average threshold gains (2 s thresholds minus 5 s thresholds) were compared to those of 15 control subjects with normal hearing (25 ears), 15 patients with cochlear hearing loss (23 ears), and 4 patients with retrocochlear lesions (4 ears). Patients with profound PHL (4 patients, 6 ears) were analyzed separately.


RESULTS
The average threshold gain of PHL patients (excluding profound PHL patients) at all frequencies was 18.3 dB, which was significantly larger than that of other groups: 0.3 dB (profound PHL patients), 3.8 dB (controls with normal hearing), 3.0 dB (patients with cochlear hearing loss), and 3.2 dB (patients with retrocochlear lesions).
Department of Otolaryngology, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan. o-ishi@mub.biglobe.ne.jp
Naoki
N
Oishi
Yasuhiro
Y
Inoue
Akemi
A
Hori
Reiko
R
Yakushimaru
Naoyuki
N
Kohno
Kaoru
K
Ogawa
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D001309:Auditory Threshold / Q000502:physiology*; D003638:Deafness / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D016057:Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Brain Stem / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006315:Hearing Loss, Functional / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D017084:Otoacoustic Emissions, Spontaneous / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult