Functional hearing loss

For a lay person:

Functional hearing loss is a hearing problem with no damage to the ear or hearing nerve that can explain it; hearing tests show results that do not match each other. It can follow stress, emotional upset or trauma, and in many people hearing recovers over time.

For a trained medical person:

Also called non-organic or psychogenic hearing loss, it is diagnosed when behavioural thresholds are inconsistent with objective measures such as otoacoustic emissions, acoustic reflexes and auditory brainstem response. Organic causes must be excluded first, as functional and organic loss can coexist. Management is reassurance, explanation and psychological support where stress or trauma contributes.

In Chinese medicine:

Liu and Tseng's textbook gives Chinese herbal formulas for this condition without a full pattern differentiation. Treatment still follows the pattern a patient presents with, not the Western diagnosis alone.

When to get help: Any sudden hearing loss needs same-day medical assessment to rule out sudden sensorineural hearing loss before it is considered functional. Seek care if hearing loss comes with dizziness, ear pain or discharge.