1/15. Sense, symbol, and soma: illness experience in the soundscape of everyday life. This article explores the lived experience of women suffering from an illness prevalent in the Kui communities of Northeast thailand. The symptoms, ranging from loss of appetite to chronic fatigue, were typically triggered by being exposed to certain kinds of sounds, such as motorcycles, quarrelling neighbors, or carousing drunkards. I examine the illness experience as it was constituted in the soundscape of everyday life to reveal how the meaning-endowed sounds aggravated the feeling of being vulnerable and defenseless. The felt immediacies created by the audio-somatic experience were reconceptualized within the indigenous somato-psychic framework as a form of illness. By examining the life histories and illness experiences of individuals who were rendered vulnerable and defenseless, the study reveals how symbols that carry political significance, the body as a cultural form of memory, and the senses combine to create a specific mode of being-in-the-world. Sense, symbols, and somatic processes combined to create an illness experience out of the felt immediacies of the Kui's socio-political predicament of marginality. ( info) |
2/15. Evaluation and treatment of severe hyperacusis. A 52-year-old male was evaluated by the authors after initially reporting fullness in his left ear while traveling on an airplane. A unique feature of the patient's complaint was the development of severe bilateral hyperacusis (loudness discomfort levels of between 20-34 dB HL) in spite of the fact that the hearing loss was initially reported in the left ear. To achieve loudness comfort, the patient was initially fit with ER-25 musician earplugs that proved to be unsuccessful. The patient next purchased earplugs and earmuffs from a gun shop in order to obtain relief from the pain and discomfort caused by his exposure to everyday environmental sounds. This paper describes the use of hearing devices that proved to be effective in providing attenuation sufficient that the patient rarely needs to rely on earplugs and earmuffs for relief from his hyperacusis. ( info) |
3/15. Assessment of the influence of background noise on escape-maintained problem behavior and pain behavior in a child with williams syndrome. We examined the influence of background noise on levels of problem behavior and pain behavior under functional analysis conditions for a child with a diagnosis of williams syndrome and hyperacusis. Background noise was associated with increases in escape-maintained problem behavior and increases in pain behavior such as clasping ears and crying. When the child was fitted with earplugs, there were substantial reductions in both problem and pain behavior under the background noise condition. ( info) |
4/15. Use of antecedent control to improve the outcome of rehabilitation for a client with frontal lobe injury and intolerance for auditory and tactile stimuli. KM, a single 23-year-old male, sustained a severe traumatic brain injury in a motor vehicle accident. Aggressive and uncooperative behaviour, resulting from the client's cognitive deficits and hypersensitivity to stimuli, made him unmanageable in a subacute rehabilitation setting. Minimizing sources of agitation reduced the client's outbursts and facilitated the completion of functional tasks, such as bathing and dressing. Modifying his environment also increased the client's participation in social and leisure activities. These changes improved the outcome of the client's rehabilitation. ( info) |
| williams syndrome (WS) is a rather rare congenital disorder characterised by a series of cardiovascular, maxillo-facial and skeletal abnormalities. It sometimes displays otorhinolaryngological symptoms because of the relatively high incidence of secretory otitis media and hyperacusis, which may be present in up to 95% of patients. The present paper describes a case of WS associated with bilateral conductive hearing loss which was not related to secretory otitis media. hyperacusis was, moreover, present in spite of the conductive deafness. Surgical or prosthetic treatment of hearing loss was delayed because of hyperacusis. Treatment of the hyperacusis by acoustic training, instead, yielded excellent, long-lasting remission of the symptoms. ( info) |
| We present the first case of a middle cerebral artery aneurysm presenting as isolated hyperacusis. The patient had a Guglielmi detachable coil (GDC) embolization of his aneurysm with complete resolution of his symptoms. The pathophysiological mechanism is discussed. We suggest further radiological investigation in young patients presenting with this symptom. ( info) |
| hearing disorders are a well-described symptom in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). Unilateral or bilateral hyperacusis or deafness in patients with normal sound audiometry is often attributed to demyelinating lesions in the central auditory pathway. Less known in MS is a central phonophobia, whereby acoustic stimuli provoke unpleasant and painful paresthesia and lead to the corresponding avoidance behaviour. In our comparison collective, patient 1 described acute shooting pain attacks in his right cheek each time set off by the ringing of the telephone. Patient 2 complained of intensified, unbearable noise sensations when hearing nonlanguage acoustic stimuli. Patient 3 noticed hearing unpleasant echoes and disorders of the directional hearing. All patients had a clinical brainstem syndrome. ENT inspection, sound audiometry and stapedius reflex were normal. All three patients had pathologically changed auditory evoked potentials (AEPs) with indications of a brainstem lesion, and in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) demyelinating lesions in the ipsilateral pons and in the central auditory pathway. The origin we presume in case 1 is an abnormal impulse conduction from the leminiscus lateralis to the central trigeminus pathway and, in the other cases, a disturbance in the central sensory modulation. All patients developed in the further course a clinically definite MS. Having excluded peripheral causes for a hyperacusis, such as, e.g., an idiopathic facial nerve palsy or myasthenia gravis, one should always consider the possibility of MS in a case of central phonophobia. Therapeutic possibilities include the giving of serotonin reuptake inhibitors or acoustic lenses for clearly definable disturbing frequencies. ( info) |
8/15. Chronic varicella-zoster virus ganglionitis--a possible cause of postherpetic neuralgia. Postherpetic neuralgia (PHN) is dermatomal distribution pain that persists for months to years after the resolution of herpes zoster rash. The cause of PHN is unknown. Herein, we report clinical, molecular virological, and immunological findings over an 11-year period in an immunocompetent elderly woman with PHN. Initially, blood mononuclear cells (MNCs) contained varicella-zoster virus (VZV) dna on two consecutive occasions. Random testing after treatment with famciclovir to relieve pain did not detect VZV dna. However, the patient was reluctant to continue famciclovir indefinitely and voluntarily stopped drug treatment five times. pain always recurred within 1 week, and blood MNCs contained many, but not all, regions of the VZV genome on all five occasions. Immunological analysis revealed increased cell-mediated immunity to VZV. Chronic VZV ganglionitis-induced PHN best explains the recurrence of VZV dna in MNCs whenever famciclovir was discontinued; the detection of only some regions of the viral genome in MNCs, compared to the detection of all regions of the VZV genome in latently infected ganglia; the increased cell-mediated immunity to VZV; and a gratifying clinical response to famciclovir. The presence of fragments of VZV dna in MNCs likely represents partial degradation of viral dna in MNCs that trafficked through ganglia during productive infection. ( info) |
9/15. Incapacitating hypersensitivity to one's own body sounds due to a dehiscence of bone overlying the superior semicircular canal. A case report. We present a case study of a 49-year-old patient with an 8-year history of hypersensitivity to sound produced by intrinsic but not extrinsic sources. Findings that indicated an organic problem were: a supranormal bone conduction threshold of -25 to -15 dB HL from 0.25 to 1 kHz with an air-bone gap of 15 to 45 dB HL, a lower threshold and larger amplitude for vestibular-evoked myogenic potentials, eye movement reactions to sound and trunk pitch sway in response to sound. Results of immitance audiometry and otoacoustic emission testing were within normal limits and indicative of intact middle ear conductance. A high-resolution CT scan of the temporal bone demonstrated a dehiscence of bone overlying the superior semicircular canal. These findings support previous research indicating that auditory energy reaches the cochleo-vestibular receptor systems more easily via transmission through cerebrospinal fluid than through bone. Therefore, a dehiscence of the bone overlying the superior semicircular canal may lead to hypersensitivity to intrinsic sound. We recommend that similar findings in other patients be followed up with an evaluation of middle ear function and the temporal bone with high-resolution CT scan. ( info) |
10/15. Drop attacks secondary to superior canal dehiscence syndrome. Two patients with unprovoked drop attacks were found to have dehiscence of the superior semicircular canal on CT of the temporal bone. Both had conductive hearing loss, preservation of stapedius reflex, and abnormal vestibular evoked myogenic potentials. Neither had sound- or pressure-induced nystagmus. Repair of the dehiscence in one case stopped the drop attacks, supporting a causal relationship between the dehiscence and the drop attacks. ( info) |