Suggest Treatment For Misophonia

Posted on Mon, 18 Sep 2017

Question: You say misophonia does not affect daily life. My granddaughter, 17 years old, has had it for years. She can not function, was an A student who gets triggered in school and has been unable to attend school for the past year. She suffers terribly when mouth sounds are heard so we don't go to eat and constant fights occur when someone, mostly her mother, swallows or something as quiet as that. She hears there is no cure and fears what will happen in the future. There are always screaming fights although she is no longer violent.... she was when she didn't know what was happening. She gets triggered and everyone's day is ruined. A beautiful girl, she was the only one without a date for the junior prom because a boyfriend might trigger her. So, she's not in school, suffers physical pain from her neck to her legs when triggered and is miserable. Yes, it does affect daily life for some. I'm her grandmother, I love her but dread seeing her because I'm afraid I will trigger her. I work at the XXXXXXX Einstein college of medicine and there is no research on this condition anywhere. It most definitely affects daily life

Answered by Dr. Ishu Bishnoi (3 hours later)

Brief Answer:
Misophonia management

Detailed Answer:
Hi XXXXXXX XXXX, thanks for asking from HCM.

I can understand your concern. Your grand-daughter is suffering from "Misophonia". It is difficult to treat this disease. But there are few options which can be tried

- Tinnitus retraining therapy (TRT) entails teaching people with misophonia how to improve their ability to tolerate certain noises.

- Cognitive behavioral therapy involves changing the negative thoughts that may contribute to the patient's suffering.

- Another treatment involves adding background noise to the person's environment in an effort to help them ignore their triggers for negative reactions. Fans and "white noise" machines along with behind the ear noise generators are some such sources of increasing background noise.

- Medications have been tried, but these are ineffective. Few medications, which have been tried, are fluoxetine, escitalopram, divalprox, amphetamine. These can show some improvement if there is depression or anxiety.

- Consult audiologist. He will advise "ear plug".These can be made to supply white noise or other sounds to mask problem noises.

- Family support.

Also you can take help from "Misophonia treatment institute". It's e-mail id is YYYY@YYYY .
I hope she will gradually recover. Even researches have shown that around 80% patients respond to treatment.

Hope it will help her. If any doubts, do let me know.
Thanks. Take care.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Yogesh D