Misophonia and its Relationship with Other Psychiatric Disorders

Abstract

Aim: Research show that misophonia accompanies many psychiatric disorders and should be considered a mental disorder. Although there are suggested diagnostic criteria, no clear ones have been defined yet. This study aims to investigate the relationship of misophonia with other mental disorders and to determine its possible category in diagnostic classification systems. Material and Methods: We included the patients who applied to the outpatient clinics of the XX University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry for the first time and healthy volunteers without a history of psychiatric disorder. A sociodemographic data form, Misophonia Interview Scale, Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Barratt Impulsivity Scale (BIS), and Yale-Brown Obsession Compulsion Rating Scale (YBOCS) were administered to the participants. Results: 60.1% of the participants (n=158) did not have misophonia, 21.3% (n=56) had disorder-level misophonia, and 18.6% (n=49) had symptom-level misophonia. Except for the YBOCS-total and obsession/compulsion scale scores of the group with misophonia, all other mean scale scores were significantly higher than those without misophonia (p<0.05 for each). The participants with misophonia were mostly in the group diagnosed with anxiety disorders. There was a moderately positive correlation between the Misophonia Symptom List total score and the BAI score in participants with an anxiety disorder (p=0.001). Conclusion: The higher scale scores of individuals with misophonia support that it may be a mental disorder. The results that misophonia most frequently accompanies anxiety disorders and is associated with the severity of anxiety suggest that it can be classified as an anxiety disorder in the diagnostic classification. Recognition of misophonia by clinicians and the development treatment algorithms will increase patients' quality of life.