This is something I’m often asked about.<\/p>\n
Is misophonia a feature of autism…\u00a0OCD…\u00a0or any other\u00a0well-known neurological disorders?<\/p>\n
The findings from a recent misophonia study can help us here.<\/p>\n
This is one of the largest studies to date, with 575 subjects, and\u00a0shines a spotlight on\u00a0some interesting\u00a0stats.<\/p>\n
Here is one of the standout findings.<\/p>\n
The majority of misophonia subjects have “no comorbid” psychiatric disorders<\/strong>.<\/p>\n What does this mean?<\/p>\n It\u00a0means that\u00a0while some misophones\u00a0may<\/em>\u00a0have other ‘disorders’\u00a0(such as autism or OCD) running\u00a0alongside their\u00a0misophonia, at least 59%\u00a0do\u00a0not.<\/p>\n This is a really important point.<\/p>\n Our instinct is often to try and\u00a0connect misophonia with other disorders, or assume\u00a0it’s a feature\u00a0of something else.<\/p>\n This\u00a0is completely understandable because it’s certainly not unusual, for example, for people on the autism spectrum to have misophonia. It’s also not unusual\u00a0for people with OCD to have misophonia. Those are just two examples and there are a number of\u00a0others (including Tourettes and PTSD).<\/p>\n As such it often feels like there\u00a0could<\/em>\u00a0be a causal connection with\u00a0misophonia and\u00a0other, better\u00a0known disorders.<\/p>\n However, while there\u00a0may\u00a0be\u00a0a slightly higher percentage of cases where people with disorder X also have\u00a0disorder Y, studies like this show that\u00a0it’s not\u00a0a prerequisite<\/u>.<\/p>\n (The\u00a0study found that around\u00a03% of misophonia subjects\u00a0had autism and 2.8% had OCD).<\/p>\n It’s fascinating to analyse possible links between\u00a0disorders.<\/p>\n And I think there may well\u00a0be some overlaps,\u00a0parallels or\u00a0interactions in certain regions of the brain which may explain why, for example, people with\u00a0autism or OCD\u00a0are a little more likely to have misophonia, than the general population. It’s just worth remembering that it’s not a given.<\/p>\n What studies like this show is the urgent need for\u00a0misophonia to be recognised\u00a0by the World Health Organisation, and in the DSM-5 (in the US), as disorders in their own right.<\/p>\n (Rather than being seen as a\u00a0side-effect or bolt on that comes with other, more established disorders).<\/p>\n We’ll get there, one day. It’s just frustrating it\u00a0takes\u00a0the\u00a0bureaucrats so long to catch up\u00a0with the science.<\/p>\n Another interesting finding from the\u00a0study was that “visual triggers [misokinesia] were often reported” in “68%” of subjects.<\/p>\n In other words, the majority of people with misophonia also have misokinesia, a\u00a0sensitivity to visual movements, such as face touching or fidgeting. (You can read more about misokinesia here<\/a><\/strong>).<\/p>\n Again, this highlights the urgent need for more studies to focus on, or at least incorporate, misokinesia in their investigations.<\/p>\n