Advice

Search strategy and evidence selection

Search strategy and evidence selection

Search strategy

Ovid MEDLINE(R) without Revisions 1996 to February Week 2 2014

  1. (Acoustic adj3 stimulation).ti,ab.

  2. Acoustic co*ordinated reset.ti,ab.

  3. Acoustic CR.ti,ab.

  4. (Acoustic adj3 neuromodulation).ti,ab.

  5. (Acoustic adj3 desynchroni?ation).ti,ab.

  6. acoustic stimulation/

  7. tinnitus.mp,ti,ab.

  8. tinnitus/

  9. (Phantom auditory and (sound or sensation)).ti,ab.

  10. pathological synch*.ti,ab.

  11. hyper?synch*.ti,ab.

  12. 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 or 6

  13. 7 or 8 or 9 or 10 or 11

  14. 12 and 13

  15. exp animals/ not humans.sh.

  16. 14 not 15

  17. limit 16 to yr="2000 ‑ 2014"

The following databases were searched:

  • Ovid MEDLINE(R) without Revisions 1996 to February Week 2 2014 (270 references retrieved).

  • Ovid MEDLINE(R) In‑Process & Other Non‑Indexed Citations February 19, 2014 (4 references retrieved).

  • PsychINFO 1806 to February Week 2 2014 (13 references retrieved).

  • Embase 1974 to 2014 February 19 (20 references retrieved).

  • DARE (includes Cochrane Library, NHS EED, HTA, CRD; 24 references retrieved).

The above searches returned a total of 303 references after duplicate removal.

Abstract books from the Tinnitus Research Initiative (TRI) conferences held in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 were searched for abstracts relating to the device of interest. Thirteen relevant abstracts were identified, 2 of which contained data not published in the full text papers already identified (Toth et al. 2014; Wurzer and Weimann 2011).

Evidence selection

Retrieved references were independently sifted by two researchers using the following criteria:

  • Population: adults with chronic tonal subjective tinnitus.

  • Intervention: Acoustic Coordinated Reset Neuromodulation.

  • Comparator: standard care (including sound therapy, counselling, cognitive behavioural therapy, hearing aids and tinnitus retraining therapy) and placebo or no treatment.

  • Outcomes: clinical and patient outcomes related to tinnitus (including relief from tinnitus, tinnitus annoyance, tinnitus loudness, psychological issues related to tinnitus, quality of life, risk of relapse, number of clinic visits and patient acceptability).

Ten papers were identified that were relevant to Acoustic CR Neuromodulation in tinnitus (based on title and abstract). One study reported outcomes relevant to this briefing document (Tass et al. 2012) (RESET trial). Four full text papers used data from the RESET trial but were not considered relevant to this briefing (Adamchic et al. 2012a; Adamchic et al. 2012b; Adamchic et al. 2013; Silchenko et al. 2013). One paper was a computer modelling study of coordinated reset neuromodulation (Tass and Popovych 2012). Two papers were editorial letters relating to the Tass et al. 2012 publication (Rucker and Antes 2013; Tass et al. 2013). One paper was a published protocol of the RESET2 trial (NCT01541969) (Hoare et al. 2013), and the last was a report from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Horizon Scanning Centre (NIHR Horizon Scanning Centre, 2013). Neither of these reported data for inclusion in this document.

One TRI conference abstract was relevant to this briefing and contained data not already presented in full‑text publications (Wurzer and Weimann 2011).