There are objectively unbearable noises, like the nails that scrach on an slate blackboard, or the incessant cry of a newborn baby. Others, such as the sucking of a straw, a person who chews or breathes frantically, are normally considered harmless, but can still be intolerable for a small minority of people. It is a disorder known as Misofonia, a selective sensitivity to sound that according to a recent study of researchers from the University of Amsterdam, shares several genetic risk factors with psychiatric disorders such as anxiety, depression and post -traumatic stress disorder.
Misofonia is a relatively rare and little studied disorder. It is characterized by a reduced tolerance to a specific sound, typically linked to the nose, such as hiccups or snoring, mouth, such as chewing or sound of someone eating nails, sounds produced by body movements, or environmental sounds, such as ringtones or the ticking of watches. The extent of the emotional response of patients can vary, from simple annoyance, up to reaching reactions of intense anger, and compromising family or work life.
What is misophony
There are not many certainties on the causes of the disorder. However, it is believed that it is often induced by negative experiences involving in sound that causes annoyances, which often occurred in childhood. But there is no consensus among experts regarding the psychiatric nature, or not, of the disorder. And there is no detailed information on its neurological and genetic characteristics of the disorder.
To fill at least in part these gaps, researchers from the University of Amsterdam have carried out a study using data from three large genetic databases, and analyzing which traits and risk factors are most common in patients suffering from misophony. The results made it possible to identify different genetic traits that unite the disease with other psychiatric disorders, such as post -traumatic stress disorder, the greatest depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder. This does not mean that the biological causes of these problems are necessarily the same, but only that the genes that predispose to the onset of the psychiatric disorders in question also increase the risk of suffering from misophon.
Misofonia is also more common in people suffering from tinnitus, and seems to be connected to some personality traits, such as neuroticism and the tendency to guilt, but not at times like aggression. According to the authors of the study, this could confirm that the disorder is not produced by the anger that arouses in patients the sound they hated, but rather by the sense of guilt they experiment by feeling that anger. The results could indicate that it is a purely psychiatric problem, but further research will be needed to confirm it.