Prevalence and characterization of tinnitus in patients with mental disorders in the context of primary health care.

Cross-sectional, so it cannot show whether tinnitus causes mental health symptoms, whether the reverse is true, or whether something else drives both. Carried out in a private primary care service, so the results may not transfer to patients in the public system. Tinnitus was identified from self-report on an online questionnaire, with no audiological examination and no diagnostic confirmation of the mental disorders. 153 of the 235 eligible patients took part; non-responders and incomplete responses were dropped, and those who answered may differ from those who did not. No adjustment was made for confounding variables. Several severity bands in the tables contain very few people, so the proportions in those bands rest on small numbers.

The paper declares financial support: nothing to declare. No other conflicts of interest are reported, and there is no statement that any sponsor designed or wrote up the study.

Do not read this as evidence that tinnitus worsens mental health. Anxiety and depression scores were higher in the tinnitus group, but the differences were not statistically significant (anxiety p = 0.099, depression p = 0.648, stress p = 0.101), and both problems were measured at the same point in time, so neither can be said to come first.