Cognitive therapy of chronic tinnitus

Chronic earnoises lead to severe emotional disturbances in many individuals . At the moment, it is not possible to treat chronic tinnitus effectively o n a medical basis. If the individual suffers strongly, psychological interv entions can help reduce the degree of subjective tinnitus annoyance. Psycho therapists are often insecure when treating tinnitus sufferers, because of their tendency to strongly focus on the chronic earnoises. Knowledge about typical dysfunctional beliefs and systematic cognitive mistakes, that hinde r the habituation process in tinnitus sufferers, help understand the patien t and help find an anchor point for reducing tinnitus annoyance. In this pa per the most important cognitive characteristics of tinnitus sufferers are summarised and the cognitive modification process is systematically describ ed.