A chart review of Veterans with (1) Tinnitus Only, (2) Tinnitus + Anxiety/Depression, and (3) Tinnitus + post-traumatic stress disorder was conducted to determine the prevalence of comorbid health conditions. Patients with comorbid mental health conditions also were likely to suffer from additional comorbid health conditions (e.g., insomnia, etc).

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This study examined the effects of extending high-frequency bandwidth, for both a speech signal and a background noise, on the acceptable signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of listeners with mild sensorineural hearing loss through utilization of the Acceptable Noise Level (ANL) procedure. In addition to extending high-frequency bandwidth, the effects of reverberation time and background noise type and shape were also examined. The study results showed a significant increase in the mean ANL (i.e. participants requested a better SNR for an acceptable listening situation) when high-frequency bandwidth was extended from 3 to 9 kHz and from 6 to 9 kHz. No change in the ANL of study participants was observed as a result of isolated modification to reverberation time or background noise stimulus. An interaction effect, however, of reverberation time and background noise stimulus was demonstrated. These findings may have implications for future design of hearing aid memory programs for listening to speech in the presence of broadband background noise.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of degree and configuration of hearing loss on the use of, and benefit from, information in amplified high- and low-frequency speech presented in background noise. Design: Sixty-two adults with a wide range of high- and low-frequency sensorineural hearing loss (5 to 115+ dB HL) participated in the study. To examine the contribution of speech information in different frequency regions, speech understanding in noise was assessed in multiple low- and high-pass filter conditions, as well as a band-pass (713 to 3534 Hz) and wideband (143 to 8976 Hz) condition. To increase audibility over a wide frequency range, speech and noise were amplified based on each individual's hearing loss. A stepwise multiple linear regression approach was used to examine the contribution of several factors to (1) absolute performance in each filter condition and (2) the change in performance with the addition of amplified high- and low-frequency speech components. Results: Results from the regression analysis showed that degree of hearing loss was the strongest predictor of absolute performance for low- and high-pass filtered speech materials. In addition, configuration of hearing loss affected both absolute performance for severely low-pass filtered speech and benefit from extending high-frequency (3534 to 8976 Hz) bandwidth. Specifically, individuals with steeply sloping high-frequency losses made better use of low-pass filtered speech information than individuals with similar low-frequency thresholds but less high-frequency loss. In contrast, given similar high-frequency thresholds, individuals with flat hearing losses received more benefit from extending high-frequency bandwidth than individuals with more sloping losses. Conclusions: Consistent with previous work, benefit from speech information in a given frequency region generally decreases as degree of hearing loss in that frequency region increases. However, given a similar degree of loss, the configuration of hearing loss also affects the ability to use speech information in different frequency regions. Except for individuals with steeply sloping high-frequency losses, providing high-frequency amplification (3534 to 8976 Hz) had either a beneficial effect on, or did not significantly degrade, speech understanding. These findings highlight the importance of extended high-frequency amplification for listeners with a wide range of high-frequency hearing losses, when seeking to maximize intelligibility.

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Despite a number of studies that have demonstrated positive outcomes for inducing clinical change in children with speech sound disorders (SSD), there is a need to address the question of whether resources are being applied in an optimal manner. As a consequence, there has been a call to look within interventions to examine parameters that may contribute to intervention outcomes; specifically the intensity of intervention (dose, frequency, duration, and cumulative intervention intensity). In this paper, empirical evidence from three intervention studies using multiple oppositions primarily, and a second contrastive approach, minimal pairs, is reported with regard to the parameters of intervention intensity. The findings indicated that greater intensity yields greater treatment outcomes. Further, quantitative and qualitative changes in intensity occur as intervention progresses, and there were differences in intensity based on severity of the SSD. Based on these data, suggestions were made toward establishing some prescribed amounts of intensity to affect treatment outcomes for children with SSD.

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