Misophonia's frequency, comorbidity, and relationship with socio-demographic variables in psychiatric outpatients

Misophonia's Frequency, Comorbidity, and Relationship with Socio-Demographic Variables in Psychiatric Outpatients INTRODUCTION AND AIM: In 2001, Jastreboff described a new clinical condition called misophonia, characterized by the feelings of being disturbed and annoyed by certain sounds and feeling irritated and depressed. The views considering this phenomenon-previously, known as a matter in the audiology literature may be a psychiatric disorder, have increased in recent years. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence, symptom profile, sociodemographic variables, and relationship with other mental disorders of misophonia, which is not included in the classification of psychiatric diagnoses but attracts more and more attention. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 1091 patients who applied to the psychiatry outpatient clinic of Sakarya Eğitim ve Araştırma Hastanesi have been involved in the study. According to the diagnostic criteria recommended by Jager et al., SCID-5, SCID-5PD, Sociodemographic Data Form, HAM-D, HAM-A, YBOKO, GAS, FAST, and WHOQOL-BREEF-TR have been applied to the cases diagnosed with misophonia by clinical interview. RESULTS: The prevalence of misophonia in outpatient psychiatric patients has been found to be 2.9%. The most disturbing sounds have been eating/chewing, and smacking. Anger and feelings of suffocation/constriction appeared most frequently when triggers were encountered. There was no comorbid psychiatric disorder in 32.6% of the cases. The most common comorbid psychiatric disorders were major depression (%23,9) and obsessive compulsive disorder (%10,9); the most detected personality disorders were borderline personality disorder (%15,2) and obsessive compulsive personality disorder (%10,9). A positive correlation was found between the severity of misophonia and the Ham-A, Ham-D, and Brief Functioning Rating Scale. A negative correlation was found between the severity of misophonia with GAS and with Psychological Health, Social Relations, Environmental-Global, Environmental-Cultural Standardized, and General Health areas of WHOQOL-BREEF-TR. CONCLUSION: Our findings showed that misophonia is found at a substantial rate in outpatient psychiatric patients and can also be found in patients not diagnosed with a comorbid psychiatric disorder. We think that our findings, such as the symptom profile of misophonia, its emotional responses, coping behaviors, and its association with psychiatric conditions, will contribute significantly to the understanding of misophonia, which has been argued to be included in psychiatric classification systems. Keywords: Decreased sound tolerance, epidemiology, hyperacusis, misophonia, tinnitus.