Methods and compositions for treating and preventing tinnitus

A method of ameliorating or reducing the occurrence of acute inner ear tinnitus induced by a cochlear insult in a human in need thereof comprising administering to the human a pharmaceutical composition comprising a therapeutically effective amount of a peptide inhibitor of c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, wherein the peptide inhibitor is no more than 50 amino acids in length and comprises a sequence that is at least 80% identical to the sequence of any one of SEQ ID NOs:

• 1 to 4 and 13 to 45.