Selective Sound Sensitivity Syndrome (Misophonia) in a Patient With Tourette Syndrome

Toward a theoretical model of misophonia

“…Over the past several years, case studies have brought attention to the incidence of misophonic symptoms across certain clinical populations [5][6][7][8], but there have been few treatment studies or empirical reports that contribute to the development of a theoretical model for understanding misophonia and related phenomena, or its treatment. For future efforts to develop effective treatments for misophonic symptoms, a cohesive theoretical model and diagnostic classification system is needed.…”

“…Indeed, misophonia shares many clinical characteristics with OCSDs, such as intrusive and unwanted preoccupation with a stimulus and distress-reducing avoidance [10,11]. There is also evidence that misophonic symptoms and sensory overresponsivity (SOR) are comorbid with OCSDs [2,6,12]. Other clinical characteristics include significant distress in response to repetitive visual movements [2,11].…”

Diminished N1 Auditory Evoked Potentials to Oddball Stimuli in Misophonia Patients

“…Misophonia is a newly defined psychiatric condition, which is characterized by the hatred of ordinary human sounds (Hadjipavlou et al, 2008; Schwartz et al, 2011; Edelstein et al, 2013; Ferreira and Harrison, 2013; Neal and Cavanna, 2013; Schröder et al, 2013). The central hallmark of misophonia is an aggressive impulse automatically triggered by sounds, such as breathing, chewing, and eating.…”

What is misophonia and how can we treat it?

“…Since the first scientific descriptions by Jastreboff [1][2][3], there have been a few case reports [4][5][6] and original studies [7,8] focusing on this condition. It is now known that the repertoire of trigger sounds reported by people with misophonia can include repetitive and social sounds typically produced by another individual, including eating (chewing/ crunching) sounds, pen clicking, clock ticking, finger tapping, whistling and lip smacking.…”

“…The coping strategies adopted by persons with this condition do not necessarily involve avoidance (removing self from certain situations) or other socially dysfunctional behaviors (challenging other people in order to stop them making noises): mimicry to 'cancel out' the trigger sound, use of earplugs/headsets/music, focus consciousness to own sounds, self-distraction and positive internal dialogues have all been reported as useful techniques to cope with misophonia symptoms [8]. It is also possible that patients who report misophonia in association with severe obsessive compulsive symptoms [6][7][8]14] might benefit from serotonergic or antidopaminergic agents; however, these suggestions are speculative at the moment and need to be tested in future clinical studies.…”