Misophonia Case Study

The following consists of four different hand-outs for health professionals--a traditional letter, a fact sheet, a copy of the recent NYTimes article, and the MAS. Misophonia sufferers are encouraged to use any of the following based upon their needs. The fact sheet was compiled with the thought that many doctors will not take the time to read a traditional letter.

This letter is an attempt to explain the medical condition termed “Misophonia” or “4S” for Selective Sound Sensitivity Syndrome. This problem is just beginning to be researched by the scientific community. A current hypothesis being explored is that Misophonia is a neurological disorder in which selective auditory signals trigger a fight-or-flight reflex.The average age of
Misophonia sufferers feel misunderstood, isolated, and hopeless. In extreme cases, sufferers can become deeply depressed and even suicidal.

The growing strength of international online support communities suggests that Misophonia is a widespread problem. There are currently many thousands of registered users on the sites listed below, and posts often express frustration with health care providers who are ignorant of the existence of this condition and who underestimate the severity of its symptoms. It will be most helpful for medical professionals to become more aware of this syndrome and understand that their patients who have Misophonia are in desperate need of understanding and creative treatment.

Some informative websites about Misophonia are listed below:
The sounds of other people eating — chewing, chomping, slurping, gurgling — can send them into an instantaneous, blood-boiling rage.
Or as Adah Siganoff put it, “rage, panic, fear, terror and anger, all mixed together.”
“The reaction is irrational,” said Ms. Siganoff, 52, of Alpine, Calif. “It is typical fight or flight” — so pronounced that she no longer eats with her husband.
Many people can be driven to distraction by certain small sounds that do not seem to bother others — gum chewing, footsteps, humming. But sufferers of misophonia, a newly recognized condition that remains little studied and poorly understood, take the problem to a higher level.
They also follow a strikingly consistent pattern, experts say. The condition almost always begins in late childhood or early adolescence and worsens over time, often expanding to include more trigger sounds, usually those of eating and breathing.
“I don’t think 8- or 9-year-olds choose to wake up one morning and say, ‘Today my dad’s chewing is going to drive me insane,’ ” said Marsha Johnson, an audiologist in Portland, Ore., who runs an online forum for people with