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Published: March. 31, 2012 at 8:50 PM

MAINZ, Germany, March 31 (UPI) -- Internet-based therapy was as effective as group therapy sessions for people with tinnitus, researchers in Germany and Sweden found.

Dr. Maria Kleinstauber of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and colleagues at the Linkoping University in Sweden divided patients with moderate to severe tinnitus into three categories: those receiving group therapy, those receiving Internet-based therapy and a control group that only participated in an online discussion forum.

The German Tinnitus League said 2 percent of the population have moderate to unbearable tinnitus, but the symptoms can be successfully managed by cognitive behavioral therapy. However, the study found not everyone has the opportunity or the desire to take a course of psychotherapy.

For the purposes of the study, the training program developed in Sweden was adapted so that it could be used for German patients and then be evaluated for its effectiveness.

The study showed that distress measured using the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory was reduced on average from moderate 40 points to mild 29 points in participants who completed the Internet-based training course.

The results for subjects in the cognitive behavioral therapy group were also very good, with distress levels being reduced from 44 to 29 points, but there was hardly any change in this respect in the control group subjects.

Tinnitus is a ringing or other annoying constant or intermittent noise in the ears -- a symptom of an underlying condition, such as age-related hearing loss, ear injury or a circulatory system disorder. It is also linked to stress and depression.

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Internet-based therapy reduces tinnitus

BEIJING After weeks of Internet-fueled rumors suggesting fissures in the top leadership ranks, Chinese authorities struck back this weekend, closing 16 Web sites and arresting at least six people in a broad crackdown on the freewheeling world of cyberspace.

Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency, said in a dispatch late Friday that the Web sites were closed, and the unnamed individuals detained, for fabricating or disseminating online rumors. For the past two weeks, the Internet has been filled with rumors of an internal power struggle after the largely unexplained March 15 ouster of the popular provincial Communist Party chief Bo Xilai.

Xinhua also said Saturday that the two most popular Twitter-like microblogging sites, weibo.com run by Sina and t. qq run by Tencent, had suspended their comment functions, after they were punished for allowing rumors to spread. The suspension of the user comments function was said to last until next Tuesday.

The State Council Information Office, which announced the new moves, said it took action against the sites for spreading rumors of military vehicles entering Beijing and something wrong going on in Beijing.

The unsubstantiated rumors included reports of a coup in Beijing, and gunshots being fired near the Zhongnanhai leadership compound. They were quickly dismissed as fabricated but still spread rapidly in the absence of much official information. Chinas censorship authorities immediately began blocking certain search terms, such as coup and gunshots. But this weekends actions suggested that a broader effort was now underway to rein in the Internet.

Also on Saturday, the government announced that since mid-February, 1,065 people had been arrested, and 3,177 Web sites shut down, in a sweeping Internet crackdown called Spring Breeze that it said was aimed at stopping Internet-based crime such as counterfeiting, smuggling and identify theft.

The government said about 208,000 harmful online messages had been deleted, and 70 Internet companies had received administrative punishment, including some it did not say how many that had been shut down.

Xinhua referred to the crackdown as an effort to cleanse cyberspace.

In the past two years, the microblogging sites have emerged as an explosively-popular new free speech platform in China, surpassing the heavily censored traditional media as the main source of news and indeed rumors for tens of millions of Internet users, called Netizens.

The Communist authorities have alternately tried to co-opt the new technology with government departments and party chiefs setting up their own microblogging accounts while also seeking to suppress the relatively open discussion of topics once considered taboo.

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Amid rumors of unrest, China cracks down on the Internet

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