The New York Misophonia Scale (NYMS): A New Instrument to Identify Misophonia in the General Population

Abstract

Misophonia is a condition in which certain sounds and behaviors elicit distress that ranges from mild annoyance to disgust or anger. The aim of this research was to develop and validate an instrument to screen for misophonia in the general population. Study 1 developed and explored the factor structure and item quality of the New York Misophonia Scale (NYMS), which originally included 42 triggers and 13 behavioral reactions. A sample of 441 American adults responded to the instrument via social media platforms. Of the original 42 triggers, 25 clustered into 4 factors: repetitive actions, mouth sounds, ambient object sounds, and ambient people sounds. The 13 behavioral reactions loaded on to 2 factors, aggressive and nonaggressive reactions. Study 2 evaluated the psychometric properties of the final version of the NYMS using a sample of 200 American adults. The results supported the validity of the factor structure and the reliability of the final version of the NYMS from Study 1. Finally, Study 3 explored the concurrent and convergent validity of the final version of the NYMS with the Misophonia Questionnaire (MQ) and the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale-Short Form (DERS-SF). A sample of 171 adult participants completed all of the scales. Good concurrent validity was found with the MQ and good convergent validity was found with the DERS-SF. Overall, the NYMS appears to be a useful and promising instrument for assessing misophonia triggers, severity of distress elicited, and behavioral reactions to the distress in the general population.

Linking disgust and misophonia: The role of mental contamination

“…The New York Misophonia Scale [45] The NYMS is a two-part self-report scale that measures an individual's tolerance to several misophonic stimuli and their reactions to such stimuli. The first part composes of 25item statements that are common misophonic triggers such as gum popping, pen clicking, foot-tapping, and more.…”

“…Archives of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, 2023; 4: [39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50] Disgust is a basic emotion characterized by the feeling of repulsion or intense disapproval of an object, person or event considered unclean, unpleasant or offensive. Disgust can be elicited by something perceived through the sense of sight, smell, taste, or touch, or vividly imagined [6].…”

The mediating role of anxiety in the relationship between misophonia and quality of life: findings from the validated Turkish version of MisoQuest

“…The Amsterdam Misophonia Scale (A-MISO-S) developed by Schröder et al (2013) and the Misophonia Questionnaire (MQ) developed by Wu et al (2014) are commonly used tools in research and clinics. Recently developed scales for misophonia assessment include the MisoQuest ( Siepsiak et al, 2020a ), Duke Misophonia Questionnaire (DMQ) ( Rosenthal et al, 2021 ), Selective Sound Sensitivity Syndrome Scale (S-Five) ( Vitoratou et al, 2021 ), Berlin Misophonia Questionnaire-Revised (BMQ - R) ( Remmert et al, 2022 ), and New York Misophonia Scale (NYMS) ( Barahmand et al, 2023 ).…”