Combined Acoustic-Acupuncture Stimulation Demonstrates Efficacy in Primary Tinnitus Rehabilitation: Objective Evidence From EEG Brain Network Analysis

Tinnitus is a prevalent neurological disorder that significantly impacts patients' quality of life and is difficult to treat. While acupuncture therapy and acoustic stimulation have individually shown therapeutic potential, their combined application remains largely unexplored. The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy and neural mechanisms of combination therapy based on brain network technology. In this tinnitus intervention study, 240 patients were enrolled, randomly divided into three groups for three treatment schemes: acoustic stimulation therapy, acupuncture stimulation therapy, and combination therapy. Each group received four courses of treatment, three treatments a week for each course. Based on the resting-state electroencephalography (rsEEG) network analysis before and after intervention, we investigated the electrophysiological changes aroused by the therapies and the inter-protocols differences, as well as how it changes with therapy process progresses and its association with tinnitus rehabilitation. The combined treatment group's post-intervention showed a more pronounced decrease in frontal-parietal-occipital connectivity in the delta, alpha, and beta frequency bands, indicating lower clustering coefficients (CC) and longer characteristic path lengths (CPL). In the combined group, the magnitude of these changes is highest and gradually decreases as therapy progresses, indicating a robust therapeutic effect. Moreover, the significant correlations of the CC and CPL changes separately with the changes of anxiety and auditory sensitivity further validate the efficacy of the combined acoustic-acupuncture stimulation therapy. Our pioneer study paves an innovative way for the treatment of primary tinnitus.