The Current State of Evidence Regarding Audiologist-Provided Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for the Management of Tinnitus: A Scoping Review

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

 

This scoping review aims to provide an overview of the current body of literature concerning audiologist-led CBT as a tinnitus treatment. The authors have mapped the current literature related to this topic and have extracted information regarding both the state of the art itself and the details of the described programs.

The manuscript in its current form represents a high-quality scoping review. The given background is complete and the rationale for the current review is communicated clearly. The used methods are described accurately and the reporting is in line with the PRISMA-ScR guidelines. The authors provide a neutral scoping overview of the literature and give valuable suggestions for further research in the discussion section (including the suggestion of the current priority research question, which I fully agree with). I have only a few minor suggestions to further improve this manuscript:

1. In the introduction section, I would ask the authors to add their rationale behind the choice for a scoping review. Why do the research questions lend itself to a scoping review rather than a systematic review?

2.       The PRISMA flowchart is currently added to the manuscript as figure S1. I would greatly appreciate having this figure in the main body of the text rather than the supplementary files. Similarly, I would not be opposed to having Table S1 in the main body.

 

Author Response

Thank you for your time and attention in reviewing this manuscript, and for your helpful feedback. Please see below your recommendations and an outline of how we have attempted to meet those.

1. In the introduction section, I would ask the authors to add their rationale behind the choice for a scoping review. Why do the research questions lend itself to a scoping review rather than a systematic review?

Thank you for highlighting this omission. We have now added a succinct rationale for choosing a scoping review methodology in lines 74-76.

 

2. The PRISMA flowchart is currently added to the manuscript as figure S1. I would greatly appreciate having this figure in the main body of the text rather than the supplementary files. Similarly, I would not be opposed to having Table S1 in the main body.

We agree that there is value to adding both the PRISMA flowchart and Table S1 to the main text and so have added both. The PRSIMA flowchart can now be viewed on page 6 and Table 1 runs across pages 7-11.

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Thank you for the opportunity to review this paper. The topic is extremely timely, and the authors' approach to conducting the review is commendable. 

I immensely enjoyed reading the article; only one comment comes to mind. The authors have not defined (in this paper) who they mean by "audiologist". It was evident that the authors meant people trained as audiologists in English-speaking countries. However, it may not be evident to the reader. The profession of audiologist does not exist in all countries, and in some countries, it means a high degree of specialization of a medical doctor or biophysicist. Therefore, I would suggest that the main text indicate the countries from which the articles included in the work originate and, therefore, the countries where audiologists can generally offer CBT. 

Author Response

Thank you for your time and attention in reviewing this manuscript, and for your helpful feedback. Please see below your recommendations and an outline of how we have attempted to meet those.

1. The authors have not defined (in this paper) who they mean by "audiologist". It was evident that the authors meant people trained as audiologists in English-speaking countries. However, it may not be evident to the reader. The profession of audiologist does not exist in all countries, and in some countries, it means a high degree of specialization of a medical doctor or biophysicist. Therefore, I would suggest that the main text indicate the countries from which the articles included in the work originate and, therefore, the countries where audiologists can generally offer CBT.

We appreciate your very appropriate suggestion of including the countries where the work originated from in the main text. This information is included in Table 1, which we have now moved to the body of the text (pp. 7-11) rather than including it as supplementary digital content.