Treatment of Misophonia: Comparison of Exposure and Sound Therapy

Hacettepe University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Misophonia

Treatments: Other: Sound Therapy; Behavioral: Exposure Therapy; Other: Psychoeducation

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05993286

16969557

Details and patient eligibility

About

The goal of this clinical trial is to compare the effects of possible treatments in misophonics. The main question it aims to answer is:

• Is exposure more effective on misophonic symptoms than sound therapy? Participants are randomly assinged to three groups of treatment;

1. Psychoeducation
2. Psychoeducation + Exposure
3. Psychoeducation + Sound Therapy

Enrollment: 76 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• People have Misophonia

Exclusion criteria

• Current psychosis
• Mental retardation or dementia
• those who had previously received exposure or sound therapy for misophonia symptoms.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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76 participants in 3 patient groups

Psychoeducation

Other group

Description:

This was an active control group and included information on the proposed mechanism of the development of misophonia, how symptoms are reinforced, and basic coping skills.

Treatment:

Other: Psychoeducation

Exposure Therapy and Psychoeducation

Experimental group

Description:

Exposure has been successfully used in the treatment of anxiety disorders, phobias, and obsessions. There are also case reports showing its effectiveness in the treatment of misophonia. The proposed procedure is to expose the misophonic person to the triggering sound in a controlled and gradual manner until habituation/desensitization to the trigger occurs. In the current research setting, each participant was asked to choose the two misophonic sounds that are most disturbing.

Treatment:

Other: Psychoeducation

Behavioral: Exposure Therapy

Sound Therapy and Psychoeducation

Active Comparator group

Description:

The music used in the current study was adapted from the protocol used by Jastreboff and Jastreboff (2013) for the treatment of misophonia. It includes noises such as white (noise with equal volume in all octaves) or pink noise (noise that decreases by 3 dB per octave towards high frequencies) or relaxing instrumental music

Treatment:

Other: Psychoeducation

Other: Sound Therapy