Living Well With Tinnitus is part of the Overcoming / Living Well series of self-help books, aimed at directly addressing the population afflicted with the titular condition. It runs at 335 pages in paperback format and, at its core, guides the patient through a form of self-administered ‘CBT-lite’. It is priced at £6.99 (Kindle edition) or £12.99 (paperback) which, for its content (including several questionnaires) represents good value for money for the patient.
The book opens with background on tinnitus, an example case, and then moves through to self-assessment using a range of questionnaires (TIQ, SSSQ, HIQ, SAD-T) along with some general questions. It then proceeds to introduce and guide the patient through a model of tinnitus derived and much adapted from Hallam’s 1984 psychological model, explaining the putative targets for psychological intervention. The remainder of the book then addresses CBT and CBT-adjacent concepts and ideas for the patient to use and try to help with symptom management, with grounded metaphor to aid application.
Having previously published on the quality of online information on tinnitus, a self-contained book with clinical provenance is of utility to clinicians to refer suitable patients to, as it is a known quantity and, for some patients, will be a boon. Its approach will suit some patients and broadens access to many of the principles of CBT treatment. Others might find the structure of dedicated sessions more beneficial. Psychologist-delivered CBT remains one of the only treatments with high-level evidence to support its efficacy, and a self-administered version will suit some of a very heterogeneous patient group and may be beneficial. Having it in our toolkit fits in the broader modern approach of clinicians taking a flexible and varied approach to aid the individual patient in front of them.
The authors of the book have done an excellent job of pulling this work together, and it is of great utility to patient and clinician alike.
