Information What can I do? Treatments Tinnitus and betahistine Name of treatment Betahistine (Serc®, Betaserc®) Type of treatment Pharmaceutical Claims for treatment Reduces/eliminates the tinnitus percept. How treatment is delivered Oral administration Potential negative consequences Evidence suggests betahistine is generally well tolerated1. Evidence offered: Papers available 5 (as in the Cochrane review[1]) Conclusions drawn The included studies did not show differences in tinnitus loudness, the severity of tinnitus symptoms or side effects between participants receiving betahistine and participants receiving a placebo. 1 Quality of evidence[2] A Does the BTA recommend this treatment? No BTA opinion on this treatment: There are other evidence-based treatments for tinnitus, which should be offered where appropriate. Would the BTA support further studies into this treatment? Yes, if the study uses rigorous methodology. Randomisation and blinding should be of the highest quality. Verdict: Safety - is this treatment harmful? Regarded as safe Verdict: Efficacy. Does this treatment work? Evidence that it is NOT effective [1] Wegner I, Hall DA, Smit AL, McFerran D, Stegeman I. Betahistine for tinnitus. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2018, Issue 12. Art. No.: CD013093. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD013093.pub2.. [2] 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_betahistine_April_2019_revised.pdf Updated 25 April 2019 Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash