If you or any of your loved ones suffer from hearing loss, there is another incredible danger that is being posed to them. While many people think that hearing loss ends in the ear, its effects can be felt throughout the body. Depression has been linked to hearing loss now, and it has many researchers worried about its implications in the future. Here we will look at the way that hearing loss can cause depression, what can be done about it, and the details of the study that revealed this concept.

How Hearing Loss Causes Depression

There are several different ways that hearing loss can lead to depression even though many people think that the reaches are rather tenuous. However, the first way that hearing loss can influence depression is by robbing people of the ability to have meaningful relationships. Having a conversation and participating in the job force are very difficult to do when you do not have full hearing capability. As a result, you can become more withdrawn from the world around you, and suffer depression as a result. Researchers are also looking into the possibility that people who have brain damage from hearing loss could have higher rates of depression.

How This Can Be Treated

Fortunately, there are many different ways that you can go about treating your hearing loss and depression. If you are treating the depression first, then you will have the ability to take medications that can help you and also go to therapy. If you have hearing loss, another potential option is to treat that to help heal the depression. This requires the person to undergo surgery to correct their hearing loss or to be fitted for a hearing aid, both of which can help the person regain some of their hearing and be able to be reintegrated into their lives once again.

The Results Of The Study

The most interesting part about the study that was completed by the people at the Institute for Deafness and other Communication Disorders is that the individuals over the age of 70 had normal rates of depression and a high prevalence of hearing loss. The people under the age of 70 had a very high rate of hearing loss compared to ten years ago, and they had an 11% rate of depression in people. This was much higher than they estimated, and will be used in further research.

The test itself took 18,000 people, examined their hearing and then asked them to complete a survey that was meant to determine if they suffered from depression or similar attitudes. This data will likely be examined again in the near future.