The Prevalence and Severity of Misophonia in a UK Undergraduate Medical Student Population and Validation of the Amsterd
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The Prevalence and Severity of Misophonia in a UK Undergraduate Medical Student Population and Validation of the Amsterdam Misophonia Scale Jay Naylor 1 & Charlotte Caimino 1,2 & Polly Scutt 1,2 & Derek J Hoare 1,2 & David M Baguley 1,2,3
# The Author(s) 2020
Abstract
Misophonia is a condition of abnormal emotional responses to specific auditory stimuli. There is limited information available on the prevalence of this condition. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of misophonia in an undergraduate medical student population at the University of Nottingham. A secondary aim of this study was to assess the psychometric validity of the Amsterdam Misophonia Scale (A-Miso-S) questionnaire tool in this population. The A-Miso-S was administered online to medical students at the University of Nottingham. To assess the validity of the A-Miso-S, a factor analysis was conducted. To determine prevalence and severity the results of the questionnaire were quantitatively analysed using SPSS. Actor analysis was conducted. Free text responses to one questionnaire item were analysed using a thematic approach. Responses were obtained from 336 individuals. Clinically significant misophonic symptoms appear to be common, effecting 49.1% of the sample population. This is statistically significantly higher prevalence than previous studies have found (p < 0.00001). Using the classification of the A-Miso-S, mild symptoms were seen in 37%, moderate in 12%, severe in 0.3% of participants. No extreme cases were seen. The A-Miso-S was found to be a unifactorial tool, with good internal consistency. This study has provided new information on misophonia and validity of the A-Miso-S questionnaire in a sample population of UK undergraduate medical students. The results indicate that misophonia is a phenomenon that a significant proportion of medical students experience though only a small subset experience it severely. Keywords Misophonia . Undergraduate. . Medical student. . Amsterdam Misophonia Scale.
* Jay Naylor [email protected] Extended author information available on the last page of the article
Psychiatric Quarterly
Introduction Individuals with misophonia are reported to experience strong emotional responses, primarily of anger, in response to specific auditory stimuli such as chewing [1, 2]. Some individuals also report involuntary replication of the sounds themselves, and experience invasive mental images such as mouths [3]. Misophonia is a relatively newly observed and under researched condition, which was first described as a reaction of the limbic and autonomic systems of the brain over and above the norm in response to specific auditory stimuli [4]; this then causes upregulated neural connections between the limbic system and the auditory system. A variety of methods have been used to treat misophonia with mixed results. In one low quality study, CBT was found to be effective for eliciting short-medium term improvements in sufferer’s ability to function [5]. A multitude of non-invasive psychiatric therapies have b
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