Hyperacusis and Misophonia: A Systematic Review of Psychometric Measures

Abstract

Background: Hyperacusis can be defined as intolerance of certain everyday sounds, which are perceived as too loud or uncomfortable and which cause significant distress and impairment in the individual's day-to-day activities. Misophonia is defined as a high magnitude of emotional and behavioural reaction to certain sounds produced by human beings, such as eating sounds and breathing sounds. Several psychometric instruments have been developed to assess symptoms and the impact of hyperacusis and misophonia; however, to the author's knowledge, no study has evaluated and compared the methodological quality of the studies on psychometric properties of the existing instruments. Purpose: To systematically review the research studies assessing the psychometric properties of the instruments used for hyperacusis and misophonia and assess the quality and appropriateness of the methodologies used. Research Design: Systematic review. Data Collection and Analysis: A systematic literature search was performed using five electronic literature databases (PubMed, Scopus, PsycINFO, Google Scholar and Web of Science). Studies were included if they were written in English and reported information about the psychometric properties of instruments measuring hyperacusis or misophonia symptoms or their impact. The quality of the studies and that of the psychometric instruments were evaluated using the consensus-based standards for the selection of health measurement instruments (COSMIN) tool. Results: The title and abstracts of 916 articles were screened and 39 articles were selected for full-text evaluation, with 14 articles meeting the inclusion criteria. From these 14 articles, eight different instruments (5 for hyperacusis and 3 for misophonia) were identified and reviewed comprising: (1) Hyperacusis Questionnaire (HQ), (2) Inventory of Hyperacusis Symptoms (IHS), (3) questionnaire on hypersensitivity to sound (GUF), (4) Hyperacusis Handicap Questionnaire (HHQ), (5) Short Hyperacusis Questionnaire, (6) Amsterdam Misophonia Scale (A-MISO-S), (7) MisoQuest, and (8) the Misophonia Questionnaire (MQ). Conclusion: None of the papers reviewed reported all the information required to meet the COSMIN standards. The studies' methodological quality varied between 'very good' and 'inadequate' depending on their grade on the COSMIN tool. There is a need for further research on the psychometric properties of the instruments included in this review.

Differential cortical activation patterns: pioneering sub-classification of tinnitus with and without hyperacusis by combining audiometry, gamma oscillations, and hemodynamics

“…In conclusion, we propose that the reduced rs-fMRI connectivity changes between AC and BA9 in TH are dominated by a reduction in connectivity to BA9DL at rest and increased evoked hemodynamic response in fNIRS to stimulus in fTin: As a result, the described increased stress response to the tinnitus loudness in TH-subjects (present study, Aazh et al, 2019;Kula et al, 2023) could be explained by an increase in the BA9DL controlled stress balance (Sullivan and Gratton, 2002). This hypothesis would be strengthened by the reduced spontaneous and increased evoked gamma power in the TH-group in response to stimulation with fTin.…”

Hearing loss, depression, and cognition in younger and older adult CI candidates

“…However, our study's findings did not support this hypothesis. To investigate this, 8 "Hyperacusis can be defined as an intolerance to certain everyday sounds that are perceived as too loud or unpleasant and that cause the person significant stress and impairment in his or her daily activities" (119). Hyperacusis is common in patients with tinnitus and also occurs in individuals without hearing loss (120,121).…”

“… 9 Noise sensitivity can be described as an “…increased reactivity to sounds that may include general discomfort (annoyance or feeling overwhelmed) due to a perceived noisy environment, regardless of its loudness.” Some authors ( 123 ) differed between noise sensitivity and hyperacusis, other authors did not ( 119 , 120 ). …”

Beyond sound irritation: cross-cultural evidence on the robustness of the five aspects of misophonic experience measured by the S-Five in a Polish sample

“…This approach ensures a more accurate measurement of misophonia and facilitates meaningful comparisons across different countries and populations. In a systematic review, Kula et al (2023) examined psychometric measures of misophonia published in English between 2002 and 2020. Notably, these tools were utilized in numerous studies establishing the prevalence of misophonia.…”