VA/DoD Clinical Practice Guideline for Tinnitus (2024)

Record details

What this research found

WEAK FOR: validated questionnaires to monitor outcomes; educational counseling; hearing aids in adults with hearing loss; cochlear implantation for those who qualify; cochlear implants over bone-conduction devices or CROS aids in single-sided deafness; CBT by a trained provider; sound therapy combined with CBT by a multidisciplinary team; sound enrichment with ongoing audiologist-directed education; multidisciplinary care for tinnitus with temporomandibular or cervical-spine dysfunction. WEAK AGAINST: psychoacoustic measures to monitor effectiveness; low-level laser therapy; ginkgo, dietary or herbal supplements and nutraceuticals; anticonvulsants, antidepressants, antiemetics, antithrombotics, betahistine, intratympanic corticosteroid injections and NMDA-receptor antagonists. INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE either way: web- or app-based self-management; computer games and training; CROS aids alone; bone-conduction devices alone; auditory cognitive training; ACT, mindfulness-based therapies and MBSR; rTMS; TENS; tDCS; acupuncture.

SOURCE MATERIAL ACTUALLY REVIEWED: the official 191-page PDF (June 2024): the full recommendation table (Table 6) with each recommendation's strength, and the discussion text of the recommendations, were read on 19 October 2026. The detailed evidence tables and appendices were not read line by line. Every recommendation is "weak" or "neither for nor against"; none is "strong". Guidelines are consensus documents, not new trial data.

Limitations and conflicts of interest

US veteran and military health-system context; evidence tables not read in full; all recommendations are weak.

Funding / conflicts: Government guideline (US Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense).

Primary sources

Context record — informs the platform without serving as treatment evidence.

This is an original summary from the Tinnitus Evidence verified database, checked against the primary source — not a reproduction of the publisher's abstract.