Phenotyping misophonia: Psychiatric disorders and medical health correlates

Abstract

Misophonia is characterized by decreased tolerance to specific sounds and associated stimuli that causes significant psychological distress and impairment in daily functioning (Swedo et al., 2022). Aversive stimuli (often called “triggers”) are commonly repetitive facial (e.g., nose whistling, sniffling, and throat clearing) or oral (e.g., eating, drinking, and mouth breathing) sounds produced by other humans. Few empirical studies examining the nature and features of misophonia have used clinician-rated structured diagnostic interviews, and none have examined the relationship between misophonia and psychiatric disorders in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual-5th version (DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association, 2013). In addition, little is known about whether there are any medical health problems associated with misophonia. Accordingly, the purpose of the present study was to improve the phenotypic characterization of misophonia by investigating the psychiatric and medical health correlates of this newly defined disorder. Structured diagnostic interviews were used to assess rates of lifetime and current DSM-5 psychiatric disorders in a community sample of 207 adults. The three most commonly diagnosed current psychiatric disorders were: (1) social anxiety disorder, (2) generalized anxiety disorder, and (3) specific phobia. The three most common lifetime psychiatric disorders were major depressive disorder, social anxiety disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder. A series of multiple regression analyses indicated that, among psychiatric disorders that were correlated with misophonia, those that remained significant predictors of misophonia severity after controlling for age and sex were borderline personality disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, and panic disorder. No medical health problems were significantly positively correlated with misophonia severity.

Misophonia in Children and Adolescents: Age Differences, Risk Factors, Psychiatric and Psychological Correlates. A Pilot Study With Mothers’ Involvement

“…It was previously reported that misophonia might be related to migraines (Rosenthal et al, 2022). In our sample, children with misophonia indeed signi cantly more often experienced migraine or strong headaches, than controls, as reported by their parents.…”

“…To date, only one study has investigated misophonia in a sample of children, and their parents using a combination of psychiatric face-to-face assessments and multiple questionnaires (Guzick et al, 2023). The ndings of this study align with some previous research (Rosenthal et al, 2022;Siepsiak et al, 2022) conducted on adult populations with misophonia, revealing a high incidence of comorbid psychiatric disorders in children with misophonia. In Guzick et al's (2023) study, 78% of children diagnosed with misophonia met the criteria for at least one psychiatric disorder, with depression and anxiety disorders being the most commonly observed.…”

“…For example, only 5% of adult misophonia sufferers in the Netherlands were diagnosed with ADHD (Jager et al, 2020; A. Schröder et al, 2013; A. E. Schröder et al, 2017) . Conversely, Rosenthal et al (2022) found no relationship between ADHD and misophonia symptoms in an American sample. Due to the limited data and inconsistent ndings on psychiatric comorbidities in misophonia, especially in children, our study aimed to investigate these factors in a sample of Polish-speaking children and teenagers.…”

“…As a result, their quality of life can deteriorate and social functioning may become severely impaired. While misophonia has been observed to co-occur with various psychiatric disorders (Erfanian et al, 2019;Jager et al, 2020;Rosenthal et al, 2022;Siepsiak et al, 2022) it cannot be attributed exclusively to any speci c disorder.…”

A genome-wide association study of a rage-related misophonia symptom and the genetic link with audiological traits, psychiatric disorders, and personality

“…Our results, however, did not show a significant correlation with OCD. A recent study into psychiatric comorbidities of misophonia ( Rosenthal et al, 2022 ) was performed in a community sample of cases using the structured clinical interview of the DSM-V (SCID-5). Here, high rates of lifetime and current social anxiety, generalized anxiety, and specific phobias were reported (with a 73% rate for any anxiety disorder).…”