# Measurement of Individualized Factors Associated with Tinnitus Burden

> **NIH NIH R01** · WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $484,424

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
 In response to the guidelines of the PAR-18-352 Funding Opportunity Announcement, this project is
proposing a data and analysis method for the reliable and accurate personalized characterization of tinnitus.
Bothersome tinnitus is an enormous source of suffering and disability. It is estimated that nearly 15% of the
general public — over 50 million Americans — experience some form of tinnitus. The proposed study will
assess a new methodology to combine ecological momentary assessment (EMA)-based, intensely longitudinal
data with new analytical techniques. The study hypothesis is that the capture of tinnitus patients’ individual
profiles will allow prediction of the currently puzzling heterogeneity of both treatment response and
neuroimaging findings. This will be a single arm, longitudinal study design with repeat assessments, and 110
participants will be recruited from Washington University. Participants will be expected to complete 4 EMA
surveys via smartphone every day for 3 weeks for a total of 84 pre-CBT surveys. Participants will also undergo
resting-state functional connectivity MRI (rs-fcMRI) prior to the start of CBT. Tinnitus offers a
particularly appropriate condition to illustrate the utility of improved and reliable personalized
assessment because of the heterogeneity in both neuroimaging and treatment findings.
 The Specific Aims are:
 (1) To obtain person-specific drivers of tinnitus through personalized ambulatory assessment and ML-
DSEM analyses.
 (2) To examine the relationship between ML-DSEM-defined drivers of tinnitus and patient response to
cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).
 (3) To examine the association between ML-DSEM-defined drivers of tinnitus, treatment response, and
neuroimaging.
 The successful conduct of the proposed research will advance tinnitus research through improved
patient assessment and data analytical techniques, which will result in greater efficacy of clinical trials and
move patient care toward personalized medicine. Such an approach is widely applicable to health
conditions that are heterogeneous and widely variable over time. Eventually, a clinician could order
the acquisition of longitudinal data through a website or app, which would then render an informative
personalized model based on the new analytical techniques described in this research. In this way, the end
result of this research could be the true realization of personalized medicine in clinical
practice.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9868991
- **Project number:** 5R01DC017451-02
- **Recipient organization:** WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Jay F. PiccirIllo
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $484,424
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-02-10 → 2024-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9868991

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9868991, Measurement of Individualized Factors Associated with Tinnitus Burden (5R01DC017451-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9868991. Licensed CC0.

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