Trial reportThe American journal of geriatric psychiatry : official journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry2022
Hearing Rehabilitative Treatment for Older Adults With Comorbid Hearing Loss and Depression: Effects on Depressive Symptoms and Executive Function.
Trial report in The American journal of geriatric psychiatry : official journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 17 citations in OpenAlex.
- Hearing aids for mild to moderate hearing loss in adults.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2026Pooled it
- Effect of hearing aids on cognitive functions in middle-aged and older adults with hearing loss: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2022Pooled it
- A precision medicine tool to understand who responds best to hearing aids in late-life depression.International journal of geriatric psychiatry · 2022Trial
- Effects of providing free hearing aids on multiple health outcomes among middle-aged and older adults with hearing loss in rural China: a randomized controlled trial.BMC medicine · 2022Trial
- Article
- The Association of Hearing Impairment and Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms in Community-Dwelling Patients with Alzheimer's Disease.Psychology research and behavior management · 2026Article
- Psychosocial factors associated with speech perception in older adult cochlear implant users: a scoping review.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2025Review
- Results from AD-HEARING (ADherence to and adjustment of HEARING aids in clinical routine care as preventive dementia strategy): a prospective 6-month follow-up study on cognition and psychological well-being.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Associations of Hearing Loss and Hearing Aid Use With Cognition, Health-Related Quality of Life, and Depressive Symptoms.Journal of aging and health · 2023Article
- Biological factors influencing depression in later life: role of aging processes and treatment implications.Translational psychiatry · 2023Review
- Listening with an Ageing Brain - a Cognitive Challenge.Laryngo- rhino- otologie · 2023Review
- Hearing loss, depression, and cognition in younger and older adult CI candidates.Frontiers in neurology · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesRecent research has revealed important neural and psychiatric consequences of hearing loss (HL) in older adults. This pilot study examined the neural effects of HL and the impact of hearing aids on neuropsychiatric outcomes in major depressive disorder (MDD).
designTwelve-week, double-blind, randomized controlled trial. PARTICIPANTS/
interventionN = 25 (≥60 years) with MDD and moderate-profound HL were randomized to receive hearing aids (100% gain targets) or sham hearing aids (flat 30 dB HL) in addition to psychiatric treatment-as-usual. MEASUREMENTS: Depressive symptoms (Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression [HRSD]), executive functioning (NIH Toolbox Flanker), integrity of auditory brain areas (structural MRI, diffusion tensor imaging).
resultsAt baseline, worse speech discrimination was associated with auditory cortical thinning (Left anterior transverse temporal gyrus: r = 0.755, p = 0.012) and lower integrity of the superior longitudinal fasciculus (FA: Left r = 0.772, p = 0.025, Right r = 0.782, p = 0.022). After 12-weeks, hearing aids were effective at improving hearing functioning (Hearing Handicap for the Elderly: active -12.47 versus sham -4.19, t = -2.64, df = 18, p = 0.016) and immediate memory (active +14.9 versus sham +5.7, t = 2.28, df = 16, p = 0.037). Moderate improvement was observed for hearing aids on executive functioning but did not reach statistical significance (Flanker: active +4.8 versus sham -2.4, t = 1.95, df = 15, p = 0.071). No significant effect on depression was found (HRSD: active -5.50 versus sham -7.32, t = 0.75, df = 19, p = 0.46).
conclusionsHL can affect brain regions important for auditory and cognitive processing, and hearing remediation may have beneficial effects on executive functioning in MDD. Future studies may evaluate whether impairment in cognitive control consequent to HL may be an important risk mechanism for MDD.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.