Tinnitus from diabetes, peripheral neuropathy or duloxetine/cymbalta?

Hi Jp I to have very bad tinnitus in my left here as I’m writing this sending me crackers I’ve put up with this for about 9 years I would say it’s definetly not duloxetine I have was on them and gabepentin and pregablin non of these meds have worked for my neuropathy I have an earring aid for when I can’t cope with tinnitus which does work when it’s very quiet in the middle of the night when you can’t sleep from neuropathy pains I do believe tinnitus is from neuropathy has I got tinnitus about 2 years into first neuropathy pains lots of different things started happening and got worse and worse year on year I no we’re your at you start questioning is it this med or that med causing things I’ve tried stop and then starting meds to see what happens to various symptoms truth be known I’m ready for the knackers yard gave up doctors specialists consultants nurses you no your own body they only have part of a clue what people are going through so had all these symptoms and many more in about the last 11 years could probably write a book on things that have happened to me in that time someone said to me once life begins at 40 in my case total opposite 10 years of hell sorry to rant hope that’s gave you something to think about and your not on your own take care brett

jp619 said:

Hi everyone. Can you help me please?

About 4 weeks ago I developed what doctors think is peripheral neuropathy. That's still being investigated, I'm a type 1 diabetic (although quite well controlled so it's a bit of a mystery).

The doctor has subsequently put me on duloxetine (anti-depressent meds) to manage pain. About 2 weeks in, and I've developed tinnitus which has got progressively worse. I've had it for about 2 weeks now. It's tolerable in the daytimes when I'm in noiser environments, but is interrupting my sleep at night.

So I'm trying to work out which of these things has caused the tinnitus - diabetes, neuropathy or duloxetine/cymbalta? Has anyone else had an experneience with either of these?

I feel as though it may be the duloxetine/cymbalta, but also confused because doctors actually prescribe it to treat tinnitus. That would certainly be the easiest to fix, as I can speak to the doctor about changing the tablets. I've not really been able to find any threads from anyone who has had tinnitus from peripheral neuropathy.

Any ideas?

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I have had type one diabetes now for almost fifty years and have some autonomic neuropathy as a consequence. I have had tinnitus now for several years and I can safely say that it isn’t related to any medication as I have only had insulin injections as I always have had. It is variable and at times is harder to cope with. For me it is a high pitched whistle at about 5kHz frequency and it never goes away. Following a hearing test recently which showed my hearing dramatically reducing from about 2-3kHz I was persuaded to trial hearing aids. These certainly helped me to hear higher frequencies better but I didn’t like the tone of the sound or the extraneous noise they picked up. Wha was worse though was that the tinnitus changed frequency and was about 9kHz when I used the hearing aids. I was told that the tinnitus was probably because the brain was not receiving signals for higher frequencies and it was inventing what wasn’t there. When higher frequencies were there because of the hearing aids the invented noise just moved up to a new frequency range that was absent. I didn’t continue with the hearing aids and the tinnitus has settled back to its previous frequency. The audiologist said that damage from exposure to prolonged loud noise is of a cause of tinnitus but any nerve damage could trigger it too. Diabetes of course is a major culprit there!

Unfortunately for me, and maybe for you to, I have to live with it and put up with it. I do often find that I can concentrate on other things and it seems like a background noise and I am more used to it now. Sometimes it is worse and I can tolerate it less well but usually it isn’t too much of a problem. White noise was no help to me at all.

I too have tinnitus from prolonged exposure to loud noise in the work environment in the days before 'Elf 'n Safety. It is much easier to live with since I got my hearing aids, but I was warned that it would take at least 2 weeks of daily use before my brain adjusted to the new noise levels. This proved to be the case, and it was mildly unpleasant before this happened. Might it be the case for you? I appreciate we are all different, but it did take a while for me to benefit from the enhanced hearing and reduction in tinnitus, and maybe it is similar for you.

Outlier said:

I too have tinnitus from prolonged exposure to loud noise in the work environment in the days before 'Elf 'n Safety. It is much easier to live with since I got my hearing aids, but I was warned that it would take at least 2 weeks of daily use before my brain adjusted to the new noise levels. This proved to be the case, and it was mildly unpleasant before this happened. Might it be the case for you? I appreciate we are all different, but it did take a while for me to benefit from the enhanced hearing and reduction in tinnitus, and maybe it is similar for you.

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I persevered with the hearing aids for a month and things didn’t improve at all in that time. The increased pitch of the tinnitus and the greatly amplified background noises that I could hear were far from pleasant. The grandfather clock ticking sounded like someone hammering in a nail and the tone of a historic keyboard instrument that I like to play was awful. Thank you for your suggestion and I am sure it will help other people but not for me at the moment. Maybe in the future if or when my hearing deteriorates further I will try again and bear your advice in mind.

I've had tinnitus for a few years. I've been on duloxetine for a few months for other pain and have not noticed it's got any worse.

I get to sleep listening to soothing music on a timer or an easy-listen audiobook set for 30 mins.

I found using white noise at night with tinnitus after using hearing aids all day worked suck as a hoover noise app .put my daughters baby to sleep so thought I'd give it a try and it did just needed to find the right noise to fit your hearing .

I’m going to go against what everyone else has said as Duloxetine likely caused my tinnitus. It’s clear from the frequency at the ENT clinic that it wasn’t noise exposure and the tinnitus started after I was on Duloxetine for fibromyalgia. I use Headspace and Audible to get to sleep at night but struggled before I had these as I used to sleep with ear plugs in to block out noise completely.