Did You Know That About One In Eight Adults Surveyed Had Misophonia?

The Condition Causes Significant Distress At Ordinary Sounds

People With It React To Noises Other People Barely Notice

The Response Moves From Disgust To Anger Almost Instantly

Researchers Surveyed Adults In Households Across Ankara Turkey

They Assessed Each Person At Home With A Structured Interview

Naming A Distressing Sound Was Only The First Step

The Rest Of The Interview Decided Who Counted As A Case

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Misophonia Is Excessive Discomfort In Response To Certain Sounds

The Sounds Are Usually Ones That Other People Make

Chewing And Breathing And Snoring Are Common Triggers

The Same Sounds Do Not Annoy Most People

It Begins As Irritation Or Disgust And Turns Into Anger

That Shift Happens Almost At Once

Researchers Proposed Diagnostic Criteria For Misophonia

That Proposal Was Published In Early 2013

Criterion A Is An Aversive Reaction To A Human Sound

Losing A Sense Of Self Control Over The Anger Is Criterion B

Criterion C Is That The Person Knows The Reaction Is Excessive

Avoiding The Sound Or Enduring It With Distress Is Criterion D

Criterion E Is Real Distress Or Interference In Daily Life

Misophonia Does Not Count If Another Disorder Explains It Better

That Last Item Names Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Directly

Each One Came From Symptoms Seen In Their Own Patients

Standard Diagnostic Manuals Did Not Cover Misophonia

The Authors Argue It Should Be Its Own Disorder

No Existing Category Fit So The List Was Written

Trained Interviewers Visited Three Hundred Randomly Selected Homes

They Sampled Sixty Bus Stop Starting Points

Five Households Were Visited At Each Point

The Final Sample Came To 541 Ankara Residents Aged Over 15

Interviewers Used A Tool Called The Misophonia Interview Schedule

No Widely Accepted Criteria For Misophonia Exist Yet

This Team Judged Cases Against Criteria It Proposed Itself

69 Of The 541 Participants Met Those Criteria

That Is A Prevalence Of 12.8 Percent

The Study Covers One City And Not A National Rate

A Second Number Came Out Of The Same Interviews

427 Participants Reported At Least One Distressing Sound

That Is 78.9 Percent Of The Full Sample

Most People Who Found A Sound Distressing Did Not Qualify

The Gap Between Distress And Diagnosis Is The Real Finding

A Different Figure Comes From A Study At A Florida University

That Survey Covered 483 Undergraduates Using Self Report

Nearly 20 Percent Reported Clinically Significant Symptoms

That Sample Was Students And Not A Household Population

The Two Figures Describe Different Groups And Cannot Be Merged

The Same Survey Looked At Who Was Most Likely To Qualify

Three Factors Were Linked To A Misophonia Diagnosis

Younger Age Was One Of Them

A Family History Of Misophonia Was Another

Previous Contact With Mental Health Services Was The Third

A History Of Tinnitus Was Not Linked To The Diagnosis

Interviewers Also Recorded Contact With Mental Health Care

Only 5.8 Percent Of Those With Misophonia Had Contacted Services

That Figure Counts Contact About The Condition Itself

Researchers Call That A Low Rate Of Help Seeking

The Paper Suggests Low Awareness As One Possible Reason

Another Possible Reason Is The Lack Of An Established Treatment

Every One Of These Numbers Comes From The Same City

One Interview Method Produced All Of Them

The Survey Measured People At A Single Point In Time

Nothing Here Shows Whether Any Of It Shifted Later

A Different Sample Could Turn Up Different Predictors

The Figures Describe Ankara At The Time Of The Interviews