Momentary assessment of tinnitus - How smart mobile applications advance our understanding of tinnitus

Tinnitus is a condition associated with a continuous noise in the ears or head and can arise from many different medical disorders. The perception of tinnitus can vary within and between days. In the recent years, Ecological Momentary Assessments of tinnitus have been used to investigate these tinnitus variations during the daily life of the patients. In the last five years, several independent studies have used Ecological Momentary Assessment to assess tinnitus. With this chapter, we want to review the current state of this research. All the EMA studies revealed a considerable variability of tinnitus loudness and tinnitus distress. It has been found that emotional states and emotional dynamics, the subjectively perceived stress level and the time of the day exert influence on the tinnitus variability. In summary, the EMA method revealed a good potential to improve our scientific understanding of tinnitus. Furthermore, it also showed that it can be used to understand the individual differences of tinnitus—and may even be used as a tool for individualized diagnostic and treatment. We will also give three examples where EMA sampling was used to describe and evaluate tinnitus treatment. In summary, we suggest that EMA studies can lead to improvements of existing research methods in the field of tinnitus.