1 in 5 adults suffer from misophonia

By Chris Dyer via SWNS

Up to one in five adults in the UK suffer from a rare condition that means they get angry at the sound of people making noises such as chewing or breathing.

Scientists say that as many as a fifth could have misophonia - which makes the sufferer upset at hearing others making minor sounds like sniffing, slurping or yawning.

People with misophonia have strong negative reactions when hearing certain common sounds, scientists said.

Around 18 percent of the general population in Britain may have misophonia, according to a new study into the condition.

People with misophonia are affected emotionally by these common sounds - usually made by others and often ones that other people don’t pay attention to.

Sounds such as breathing, yawning, or chewing create a fight-or-flight response that triggers anger and a desire to escape, experts said.

Dr. Jane Gregory, a research fellow from the University of Oxford and one of the study authors, said: "Misophonia is more than just being annoyed by certain sounds, it’s about feeling trapped or helpless when you can’t get away from these sounds and missing out on things because of this.

"It’s about feeling like there’s something wrong with you for the way you react to sounds, but also not being able to do anything about it."

Those surveyed were asked about common “trigger sounds” and got respondents to describe their emotional response and its intensity using a 10-point scale.

Researchers also asked people about how these sounds affect their life, the way they see themselves, their personal and professional relationships.

They conducted interviews with 26 self-identified individuals with misophonia and 29 individuals from the general survey pool to establish a cut-off score for significant symptoms of misophonia.

The new questionnaire allowed researchers and clinicians to measure these aspects of misophonia and see how things change over time.

Scientists found that 18 percent of their sample appeared to have significant symptoms of misophonia, which can include feeling "trapped" or "helpless" around these sounds.

They also said they blamed themselves for the strong reactions and missed out on social events because of the impact of sounds on their state of mind.

And the most common negative response to these sounds in the general population was irritation, while the individuals with misophonia said they felt trapped or helpless when they could not get away from these sounds.

While there were no significant differences in how common misophonia appears based on gender, researchers found people above the threshold for misophonia were an average 3.3 years younger than those below the threshold - a small but significant difference, scientists said.

Dr. Silia Vitoratou, a fellow author of the study from King’s College London, said: "Ιt is important that our study revealed that one-in-five people in the UK experiences significant misophonic reactions, but only a small fraction was aware of the term.  

"This means that most people with misophonia do not have a name to describe what they are experiencing.

"Our team works hard to raise the condition's profile and to provide clinicians with the tools they need to understand and assess misophonia effectively."

Though these results are specific to the UK, so may not be applied across countries and cultures, scientists suggested their survey may be useful to clinicians working in the misophonia field.

Of the 768 people surveyed for the research, 51 percent identified as women, 48 percent as men, and four identified as non-binary or "other," the scientists said.

The mean age was 46.4. 13.6 percent of the sample was aware of the term misophonia prior to the survey, with 2.3 percent self-identifying as having misophonia, the study found.

Gregory added: "Our survey captured the complexity of the condition.

"It can be such a relief to find out that you are not alone, that other people react this way to sounds too. To find out that there is a word for what you are experiencing."

There’s little research on how common misophonia is in a general population, though previous studies have reported estimates ranging from five and 20 percent within specific samples, such as university students.

In this latest study, the authors surveyed a sample representative of the UK general population.

The study was published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE.