1 area of Communication Disorders, Central Michigan University. Mount Pleasant, and the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee
A review and critique of the research on acupuncture and transdermal electrostimulation therapy in treating sensorineural hearing loss is presented. Of 111 subjects who had undergone acupuncture treatment only 4% showed improvement. Some of the subjects in these studies were noted to exhibit a decrease in hearing sensitivity. Additional data collected at our clinics on four preschool hearing-impaired children failed to provide evidence of improvement following acupuncture. Similar results are reported with transdermal therapy, suggesting that both procedures are inappropriate for the treatment of sensorineural hearing loss.
Submitted on October 11, 1974