A study examining individuals suffering from misophonia revealed that those with more severe symptoms tend to report higher levels of general and traumatic stress. Furthermore, hyperarousal — a symptom associated with post-traumatic stress disorder — was linked to the severity of misophonia. The research was published in PLOS One.
Misophonia is a sound intolerance disorder characterized by intense negative emotional and physiological responses to specific, quite ordinary sounds. The sounds that trigger such reactions are often commonplace noises such as chewing, breathing, or keyboard typing. People with misophonia may react to such sounds with irritation, disgust, or even rage, leading to significant distress and avoidance behaviors. They may take actions to avoid the sounds or become physically or verbally aggressive towards the person(s) causing the sound. The exact causes of misophonia are not well understood, but it is thought to involve auditory processing abnormalities combined with emotional regulation issues.
Studies indicate that stress might be one of the causes of over-responsivity to sound, such as the one found in misophonia. A study on rats indicated that induced stress can result in transient increased sensitivity to sound. Another study on women found that their sensitivity to sound significantly increased after they were exposed to stress. Further studies have also associated the discomfort level with sounds to emotional exhaustion.
Study author Rachel E. GuettaI and her colleagues wanted to study in more detail how traumatic life experiences and perceptions of stress might be related to misophonia severity. They conducted a study during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic to examine this. The authors noted that stress is a multifaceted phenomenon and that some components of stress might be more strongly associated with misophonia severity than others.
The study involved 143 adult residents of the United States who identified as having increased sound sensitivity, i.e., misophonia. The average age of the participants was 37 years, and 68% were female. The research was carried out from December 2019 to December 2022.
Participants completed assessments of misophonia severity (using the Misophonia Questionnaire and the Duke Misophonia Questionnaire), psychiatric disorders (via the Structured Clinical Interview for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual-5th research edition, SCID-5), stressful life events (the Stressful Life Events Checklist for DSM-5), symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist for DSM-5), perceived stress (the Perceived Stress Scale), and symptoms of acute stress disorder (the Acute Stress Disorder Scale – adapted for COVID).
The results showed that 12% of the participants were suffering from a trauma disorder at the time of the study, with 33% having experienced a traumatic disorder at least once in their lifetime. Among these, 22% had suffered from PTSD. The most common traumatic events reported included transportation accidents (52% of participants), unwanted sexual experiences (36%), natural disasters (32%), and the sudden, unexpected death of a loved one (29%).
Higher severity of misophonia symptoms was associated with higher levels of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms, perceived stress, and symptoms of acute stress disorder. Of these, the association with perceived stress was the strongest, followed by symptoms of hyperarousal, an aspect of posttraumatic stress disorder.
“These findings suggest that transdiagnostic processes related to stress, such as perceived stress and hyperarousal, may be important phenotypic features and possible treatment targets for adults with misophonia,” the study authors concluded.
The study sheds light on the links between misophonia and stress. However, it should be noted that the design of the study does not allow any cause-and-effect conclusions to be drawn from the data. Additionally, the timing during the COVID-19 pandemic may have influenced levels of perceived stress and other stress indicators, meaning results from non-pandemic periods might differ.
The paper, “Misophonia is related to stress but not directly with traumatic stress,” was authored by Rachel E. GuettaI, Marta Siepsiak, Yanyan Shan, Emily Frazer-Abel, and M. Zachary Rosenthal.