Here are the newest additions to misophonia research.
These are on our list of papers to summarize for you.
- Erfanian, M., Brout, J. J., Edelstein, M., Kumar, S., Mannino, M., Miller, L. J., … & Rosenthal, M. Z. (2017). Investigating misophonia: A review of the literature, clinical implications and research agenda reflecting current neuroscience and emotion research perspectives. European Psychiatry, 41, S681.
- Kumar, S., Tansley-Hancock, O., Sedley, W., Winston, J. S., Callaghan, M. F., Allen, M., … & Griffiths, T. D. (2017). The brain basis for misophonia. Current Biology, 27(4), 527-533.
- This study shows that there are difference in the brain response of the vmPFC and anterior insular complex when exposed to triggers. The role of the vmPCF in misophonia indicates that misophonia is a “learned” emotional response.
- Dozier, T. H., and Morrison, K. L. (2017). Phenomenology of misophonia: Initial physical and emotional responses. American Journal of Psychology.
- In this experimental study, 26 individuals were each exposed to 3 weak triggers (2 auditory and 1 visual). Triggers were often so weak that the person was not triggered at all. When triggered, the person reported any physical sensations experienced and any emotions experienced. All participants reported a physical response to at least one of their triggers. In 15% of the tests, participants reported that they were triggered (emotional response), but no physical sensation. In 30% of the tests, participants reported that they were triggered (physical sensation response), but no emotional response. The physical responses were highly varied from person to person. About 60% of participants has the same basic physical response for all 3 triggers, and 40% had different physical responses for different triggers. This study is the first reported research on the immediate physical reflex response of misophonia. It supports conditioning as the mechanism for the development of misophonia because the responses are very different from person to person.
- Schröder, A. E., Vulink, N. C., van Loon, A. J., & Denys, D. A. (2017). Cognitive behavioral therapy is effective in misophonia: An open trial. Journal of Affective Disorders, 217, 289-294.
- This is the first controlled misophonia treatment study. It reported that in a pilot study, that simply exposing a person to their triggers did not reduce the severity of misophonia, and if anything, made the misophonia become more severe. The study covered the treatment of 90 individuals treated between April 2012 and November 2013. Half of the individuals (48%) had meaningful reduction in their misophonia based on their A-MISO-S score (>30% reduction) and rating their improvement as much improved or very much improved. The treatment was 8 group sessions. The first session included an explanation for the rational for treatment. The following sessions were behavioral techniques which included task concentration, counterconditioning, trigger stimulus manipulation, and relaxation exercises. Each session lasted 4 hours.
- McKay, D., Kim, S. K., Mancusi, L., Storch, E. A., & Spankovich, C. (2017). Profile Analysis of Psychological Symptoms Associated with Misophonia: A Community Sample. Behavior Therapy.
- Taylor, S. (2017). Misophonia: A new mental disorder?. Medical Hypotheses, 103, 109-117.
- Schneider, R. L., & Arch, J. J. (2017). Case study: A novel application of mindfulness-and acceptance-based components to treat misophonia. Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science, 6(2), 221-225.
- Vidal, C., Vidal, L. M., & Lage, M. A. (2017). Misophonia: Case report. European Psychiatry, 41, S644.
- Zhou, X., Wu, M. S., & Storch, E. A. (2017). Misophonia symptoms among Chinese university students: Incidence, associated impairment, and clinical correlates. Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders, 14, 7-12.
- Rouw, R., & Erfanian, M. (2017). A Large‐Scale Study of Misophonia. Journal of Clinical Psychology.
- Erfanian, M., Brout, J. J., & Keshavarz, A. (2017). Misophonia and affective disorders: The relationship and clinical perspective. European Psychiatry, 41, S471.
- Tunç, S., & Başbuğ, H. S. (2017). An extreme physical reaction in misophonia: stop smacking your mouth!. Psychiatry and Clinical Psychopharmacology, 1-3.
- Youssef, J., Youssef, L., Juravle, G., & Spence, C. (2017). Plateware and slurping influence regular consumers’ sensory discriminative and hedonic responses to a hot soup. International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science.
- Schneider, R. L., & Arch, J. J. (2017). Case study: A novel application of mindfulness-and acceptance-based components to treat misophonia. Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science, 6(2), 221-225.
Below is a list of published misophonia journal articles (and a few others), and a brief summary of the article.
- Bernstein, R. M., Angell, K. L., & Dehle, C. M. (2013). A brief course of cognitive behavioural for the treatment of misophonia: a case example. The Cognitive Behaviour Therapist, 6, 1-13. doi: 10.1017/S1754470X13000172
- Reports on positive CBT therapy for a 19-yr-old female. Social functioning was remediated, but she still found chewing sounds unpleasant. Improvement maintained at 4-month follow-up.
- Cash, T. V. (2015). Decreased Sound Tolerance (DST): Prevalence, Clinical Correlates, and Development of a DST Assessment Instrument.
- This is a PhD dissertation that duplicates the prevalence of misophonia first done by Wu et al., 2014. It supports the general prevalence of misophonia in adults being from 15 to 20% of adults. As with the Wu study, it DID NOT find that misophonia was reported more frequently by women, but women did report a higher level of misophonia severity.
- Cavanna, A. E., (2014). What is misophonia and how can we treat it? Expert Review of Neurotherapeutics, 14, 357-359. doi: 101586/147375.2014.892418
- Donahoe, J. W., & Vegas, R. (2004). Pavlovian conditioning: The CS-UR relation. Journal Of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 30(1), 17-33. doi:10.1037/0097-7403.30.1.17
- Research study that indicates conditioning occurs with the temporal pairing of a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned response rather than the pairing of a neutral response and an unconditioned stimulus.
- Dozier, T. H. (2015a). Counter Conditioning treatment for misophonia. Clinical Case Studies, 14, 1-14. doi; 10.1177/1534650114566924
- Reports successful treatment of a middle-aged woman by treating specific triggers using counterconditioning. 10-month follow-up showed continued improvement. The woman had a sharp pain in her chest when triggered. Proposed that misophonia consists of an aversive physical reflex elicited by the stimulus, and an emotional response elicited by the aversive physical reflex.
- Dozier, T. H. (2015b). Etiology, composition, development and maintenance of misophonia: A conditioned aversive reflex disorder. Psychological Thought, 8, 1-16. doi: 10.5964/psyct.v8i1.132
- Theory article based on case examples. Proposes that misophonia is a conditioned physical reflex disorder. The reflex maintains with exposure to stimuli in the natural environment. Characteristics of conditioned reflexes (spontaneous recovery, response strength vs. stimulus strength) are observed when treating patients. Proposed the name, Conditioned Aversive Reflex Disorder.
- Dozier, T. H. (2015c). Treating the initial physical reflex of misophonia with the neural repatterning technique: A counterconditioning procedure. Psychological Thought, 8(2), 189–210. doi:10.5964/psyct.v8i2.138
- Case study report of successful treatment of misophonia. The individual had a strong fist-clinch physical response. Two triggers were treated. Relaxing fists in natural environment reduced response to other triggers.
- Dozier, T. H. (2015d). Understanding and Overcoming Misophonia, A Conditioned Aversive Reflex Disorder. Livermore, CA: Misophonia Treatment Institute.
- This book explains misophonia, management techniques, and existing treatments.
- Dozier, T. H. (2017). Understanding and Overcoming Misophonia, 2nd edition, A Conditioned Aversive Reflex Disorder. Livermore, CA: Misophonia Treatment Institute.
- Like the 1st edition, this book explains misophonia, management techniques, and existing treatments. It has about 50% new content and includes up-to-date information from research studies and clinical practice.
- Dozier, T. H., and Morrison, K. L. (2017). Phenomenology of misophonia: Initial physical and emotional responses. American Journal of Psychology.
- In this experimental study, 26 individuals were each exposed to 3 weak triggers (2 auditory and 1 visual). Triggers were often so weak that the person was not triggered at all. When triggered, the person reported any physical sensations experienced and any emotions experienced. All participants reported a physical response to at least one of their triggers. In 15% of the tests, participants reported that they were triggered (emotional response), but no physical sensation. In 30% of the tests, participants reported that they were triggered (physical sensation response), but no emotional response. The physical responses were highly varied from person to person. About 60% of participants has the same basic physical response for all 3 triggers, and 40% had different physical responses for different triggers. This study is the first reported research on the immediate physical reflex response of misophonia. It supports conditioning as the mechanism for the development of misophonia because the responses are very different from person to person.
- Edelstein, M., Brang, D., Rouw, R., & Ramachandran, V.S. (2013). Misophonia: Physiological investigations and case descriptions. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 7(296), 1-11. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2013.00296
- Origin research study. Reports misophonia characteristics of 11 participants. Measures skin conductance (SCR) of individuals and controls when exposed to misophonic stimuli. SCR begins rising 2 seconds after trigger onset and continues to rise (15 sec duration). This validates the verbal reports of anger/distress when exposed to triggers.
- Fayzullina, S., Smith, R. P., Furlotte, N., Hu, Y., Hinds, D., & Tung, J. Y. (2015). White Paper 23-08 Genetic Associations with Traits in 23andMe Customers.
- 23andMe.com study indicating there are specific genes that are more common in individuals with misophonia. Individuals responded to the question, “Does the sound of others chewing fill you with rage?” 80% no, 20% yes. “Not sure” responses were excluded, but they were about 4%.
- Ferreira, G. M., Harrison, B. J., & Fontenelle, L. F. (2013). Hatred of sounds: misophonic disorder or just an underreported psychiatric symptom. Annals of Clinical Psychiatry, 25(4), 271-274.
- Proposes that misophonia may actually be a symptom of other underlying disorders. Three cases reported.
- Jasterboff, M. M., & Jasterboff, P. J. (2002). Decreased sound tolerance and tinnitus retraining therapy (TRT). The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Audiology, 24, 74-84.
- Coins the name misophonia. Describes misophonia as abnormally strong reactions of the autonomic and limbic systems resulting from enhanced connections between the auditory, limbic and autonomic systems, or enhanced reactivity of the limbic and autonomic system to sound… controlled by conditioned reflexes principles.”
- Jastreboff, M.M., & Jastreboff, P.J. (2014). Treatments for decreased sound tolerance (hyperacusis and misophonia). Seminars in Hearing 35(2), 105-120. doi: 10.1055/s-0034-1372527
- Reports the outcome data for 201 DST patients treated in their clinic. 83% report improvement, defined as a 2-point change in a 10-point self-report severity scale.
- Johnson, P. L., Webber, T. A., Wu, M. S., Lewin, A. B., Murphy, T. K., & Storch, E. A. (2013). When selective audiovisual stimuli become unbearable: a case series on pediatric misophonia. Neuropsychiatry, 3(6), 569-575.
- Reports on four cases. Conclusion: Misophonia is unique.
- McGuire, J. F., Wu, M. A., & Storch, E. A. (2015). Cognitive-Behavioral therapy for 2 youths with misophonia. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 76, 573-574. doi: 10.4088/JCP14cr09343
- Case study of two children (17 and 11) with misophonia. CBT treatment resolved problem of social functioning in both. No follow-up reported.
- Neal, M., & Cavanna, A. E. (2013). Selective sound sensitivity syndrome (misophonia) in a patient with Tourette’s syndrome. The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, 25, E01-E01. doi: 10.1176/appi.neuropsych.11100235
- Schröder, A., Vulink, N., & Denys, S. (2013). Misophonia: Diagnostic criteria for a new psychiatric disorder. PLoS ONE 8, e54706. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0054706
- Proposes a diagnostic criteria for misophonia. Misophonia is different from other disorders. Misophonia cannot be classified with the DSM or ICD criteria.
- Schröder, A. E., Vulink, N. C., van Loon, A. J., & Denys, D. A. (2017). Cognitive behavioral therapy is effective in misophonia: An open trial. Journal of Affective Disorders, 217, 289-294.
- This is the first controlled misophonia treatment study. It reported that in a pilot study, that simply exposing a person to their triggers did not reduce the severity of misophonia, and if anything, made the misophonia become more severe. The study covered the treatment of 90 individuals treated between April 2012 and November 2013. Half of the individuals (48%) had meaningful reduction in their misophonia based on their A-MISO-S score (>30% reduction) and rating their improvement as much improved or very much improved. The treatment was 8 group sessions. The first session included an explanation for the rational for treatment. The following sessions were behavioral techniques which included task concentration, counterconditioning, trigger stimulus manipulation, and relaxation exercises. Each session lasted 4 hours.
- Taylor, S., Conelea, C. A., McKay, D., Crowe, K. B., & Abramowitz, J. S. (2014). Sensory intolerance: latent structure and psychopathologic correlates. Comprehensive psychiatry, 55(5), 1279-1284.
- Research study on sensory processing disorder that terms SPD sensitivity to loud or continual sounds as misophonia. This study leads to confusion regarding SPD and misophonia. Dozier feels this study should not be considered a misophonia study because the criteria for stimuli was “I am very bothered by certain auditory sensations, such as the sound of alarms, sirens, appliances, or background noises like people talking or ticking clocks.” Also, “I am very bothered by certain tactile sensations, such as clothing textures or tightness; substances that feel sticky, greasy, or wet, or activities like haircuts or cutting my nails.”
- Webber, T. A., Johnson, P. L., & Storch, E. A. (2014). Pediatric misophonia with comorbid obsessive–compulsive spectrum disorders. General hospital psychiatry, 36(2), 231-e1.
- Wu, M. S., Lewin, A. B., Murphy, T. K., & Storch, E. A. (2014) Misophonia, incidence, phenomenology, and clinical correlates in an undergraduate student sample. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 70, 994-1007. doi: 10.1002/jclp.22098
