Information What can I do? Treatments Tinnitus and anticonvulsants Name of treatment Anticonvulsants Type of treatment Pharmaceutical Claims for treatment Reduces/eliminates the tinnitus percept. How treatment is delivered Oral administration Potential negative consequences Common side effects from clinical trials included: nausea, dizziness, headache, tiredness1. Evidence offered: Papers available 7 (as in the Cochrane review[1]) Conclusions drawn There is no evidence to show that anticonvulsants have a large positive effect in the treatment of tinnitus1. Carbamazepine and oxcarbazepine are not more effective than placebo in decreasing tinnitus severity.[2] Quality of evidence[3] A Does the BTA recommend this treatment? No BTA opinion on this treatment: There is no evidence to show that anticonvulsants have an impact on tinnitus. Side effects were experienced by 18% of patients in the trials reviewed. Would the BTA support further studies into this treatment? Yes, if a high-quality study Verdict: Safety - is this treatment harmful? Limited potential for harm Verdict: Efficacy - does this treatment work? Evidence that it is not effective [1] Hoekstra CEL, Rynja SP, van Zanten GA, Rovers MM. Anticonvulsants for tinnitus. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2011, Issue 7. Art. No.: CD007960. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD007960.pub2. [2] Gerami H, Saberi A, Nemati S, Kazemnejad E, Aghajanpour M. Effects of oxcarbazepine versus carbamazepine on tinnitus: A randomized double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial. Iran J Neurol. 2012;11(3):106–110. [3] A = Systematic review/meta analysis. B = Randomised control studies. C = Cohort studies. D = Case control studies. E = case studies/reports. +/- to be used to indicate quality within bands Download this information: Tinnitus_and_anticonvulsants_April_2019.pdf Published 15 April 2019