Combination of tonic and burst stimulations to treat neurological disorders

1. A method of stimulating nerve tissue of a patient using an implantable pulse generator, the method comprising:

storing, in the implantable pulse generator, one or more first stimulation parameters that define at least one stimulation pulse to be repeated in a tonic manner,

storing, in the implantable pulse generator, one or more second stimulation parameters that define stimulation pulses to be repeated in bursts;

generating, by the implantable pulse generator, a combination of burst stimulation and tonic stimulation according to the first and second stimulation parameters,

providing the burst and tonic stimulation from the implantable pulse generator to a stimulation lead; and

applying the burst and tonic stimulation to nerve tissue of the patient via one or more electrodes of the stimulation lead.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first and second parameters are stimulation program parameters that are repeated in stimulation cycles by the implantable pulse generator.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the burst and tonic stimulation are applied to nerve tissue of the patient using different electrode combinations.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the generating generates a respective pulse for the tonic stimulation immediately before beginning pulses for an individual burst of the burst stimulation.

5. The method of claim 1 further wherein pulses for the tonic stimulation are generated between an occurrence of a first pulse of a respective burst and a last burst of the respective burst of the burst stimulation.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the neurological disorder is a movement disorder.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the neurological disorder is a sensory disorder.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the sensory disorder is tinnitus or pain.

9. A method of treating tinnitus comprising the steps of:

implanting at least an electrical lead within a patient such that at least one electrode of the electrical lead is disposed adjacent to central neuronal tissue;

selecting one or more operating parameters for an electrical stimulation system that define burst stimulation in combination with tonic stimulation that is effective for treating tinnitus;

programming the electrical stimulation system to generate electrical pulses according to one or more operating parameters; and

activating the electrical stimulation system to deliver electrical pulses to the electrode adjacent to nervous tissue thereby treating the patient's tinnitus.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein central nervous tissue is associated with the patient's spinal cord.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the central nervous tissue is associated with the cortex.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the cortex is the auditory cortex.

13. The method of claim 9 , wherein the one or more operating parameters include a pulse amplitude parameter, a pulse width parameter, and a frequency parameter, wherein the frequency parameter defines a frequency for the repetition of bursts, the pulse amplitude parameter defining a pulse amplitude within a burst of pulses, and the pulse width parameter defining a width of a pulse within the burst of the pulses.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the frequency parameter is about 40 Hz.

15. The method of claim 9 , wherein the selecting comprises:

temporarily delivering electrical pulses according to the one or more operating parameters to the electrode adjacent to the central neuronal tissue; and

monitoring the patient's pain while the temporarily delivering is performed.

16. The method of claim 9 , wherein the monitoring comprises: determining an improvement in the patient's tinnitus.

17. The method of claim 9 further comprising adjusting stimulation parameters to optimize tinnitus relief.

18. A method of treating pure tone tinnitus and noise-like tinnitus in a patient, wherein the patient controls the treatment, the method comprising the steps of:

selecting one or more operating parameters for an implanted electrical stimulation system that defines burst stimulation in combination with tonic stimulation and is effective for treating the patient's tinnitus; and

activating the electrical stimulation system to generate and deliver electrical pulses according to the one or more operating parameters to one or more electrodes adjacent to central neuronal tissue.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the selecting comprises:

selecting one or more first parameters defining stimulation pulses that are effective in treating a pure tone component of the patient's tinnitus, the one or more first parameters defining tonic stimulation; and

selecting one or more second parameters defining stimulation pulses that are effective in treating a white noise component of the patient's tinnitus, the one or more second parameters defining burst stimulation.

20. The method of claim 19 further comprising a step of altering one or more operating parameters resulting in optimization of the treatment.

21. The method of claim 20 further comprising a step of storing the altered one or more operating parameters.

22. A method of treating a sensory disorder in a patient, comprising:

providing first trial stimulation to a patient using tonic stimulation to identify first stimulation parameters for treating at least a first component of the sensory disorder experienced by the patient, wherein the first stimulation parameters comprise an electrode combination and at least one pulse characteristic;

providing second trial stimulation to a patient using burst stimulation, the second trial stimulation adapted to treat at least a second component of the sensory disorder that is not fully treated by tonic stimulation; and

programming an implantable pulse generator to generate tonic and burst stimulation pulses according to parameters associated with the first and second trial stimulation.

23. The method of claim 22 , wherein the sensory disorder is chronic pain.

24. The method of claim 22 , wherein the sensory disorder is tinnitus.

25. A method of treating a sensory disorder in a patient, comprising:

programming an implantable pulse generator to define first stimulation parameters for treating at least one component of a sensory disorder of the patient, the first stimulation parameters defining tonic stimulation;

programming the implantable pulse generator to define second stimulation parameters to prevent or mitigate patient habituation to the tonic stimulation, the second stimulation parameters defining burst stimulation;

operating the implantable pulse generator to generate first and second stimulation pulses according to the first and second stimulation parameters; and

delivering the first and second stimulation pulses to neural tissue of the patient using one or more electrodes of one or more stimulation leads.

26. An implantable pulse generator, comprising:

pulse generating circuitry for generating stimulation pulses;

a controller for controlling the pulse generating circuitry; and

memory for storing operating parameters defining one or more stimulation programs, wherein the one or more stimulation programs define stimulation characteristics for use by the controller in controlling the pulse generating circuitry, wherein at least one stimulation program includes parameters defining burst stimulation of multiple pulses to occur in succession with an inter-pulse interval of less than 0.005 seconds and tonic stimulation.

27. The implantable pulse generator of claim 26 , wherein the controller causes the pulse generating circuitry to generate respective bursts at about 6, 18, or 40 Hz.