Method for treating diseases of the inner ear using adamantane derivatives

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION As already mentioned, the use of adamantane derivatives is possible or conceivable in many cases of diseases of the inner ear.
Preferably, adamantane derivatives can be used in the case of inner ear diseases in which troublesome ear noise, so-called tinnitus occurs, especially in the case of treating such forms of tinnitus as chronic tinnitus, subacute tinnitus or also acute permanent tinnitus, since it is just these patients that require intensive therapy.
In addition to other inner ear diseases those in which tinnitus occurs often involving loss of hearing (deafness) are concerned.
In a tinnitus occurrence this loss of hearing lies in the frequency range of the tinnitus, the impaired hearing being associated with a so-called positive recruitment and/or (amplitude) reduction or failure of otoacoustic emissions.
The so-called positive recruitment is a phenomenon in audiometry when a comparison of the loudness is undertaken in the case of one-sided deafness.
In the case of positive recruitment a slight amplification is needed in the ear impaired in hearing to prompt the same loudness sensitivity as for the healthy ear, i.
e.
the loss in hearing is compensated by increasing loudness.
The so-called otoacoustic emissions are noise events occurring in the external canal having to do with the condition of the middle ear or inner ear.
Otoacoustic emissions may occur spontaneously, i.
e.
without the ear receiving external stimulation or also being evoked externally, for example with the aid of a sound emitter.
Both the occurrence of positive recruitment and the reduction or failure of otoacoustic emissions can be measured and thus an inner ear dysfunction assigned to the patients concerned.
Should a patient be inflicted simultaneously with a tinnitus and a reduction in hearing in the corresponding frequency range of the tinnitus associated with a positive recruitment and/or reduction or failure of otoacoustic emissions, it can be concluded that an impairement or dysfunction of the outer hair cells and its cochlear amplifier is involved