Abstract
Misophonia is characterized by decreased tolerance and accompanying defensive motivational system responding to certain aversive sounds and contextual cues associated with such stimuli, typically repetitive oral (e. g., eating sounds) or nasal (e.g., breathing sounds) stimuli. Responses elicit significant psychological distress and impairment in functioning, and include acute increases in (a) negative affect (e.g., anger, anxiety, and disgust), (b) physiological arousal (e.g., sympathetic nervous system activation), and (c) overt behavior (e.g., escape behavior and verbal aggression toward individuals generating triggers). A major barrier to research and treatment of misophonia is the lack of rigorously validated assessment measures. As such, the primary purpose of this study was to develop and psychometrically validate a self-report measure of misophonia, the Duke Misophonia Questionnaire (DMQ). There were two phases of measure development. In Phase 1, items were generated and iteratively refined from a combination of the scientific literature and qualitative feedback from misophonia sufferers, their family members, and professional experts. In Phase 2, a large community sample of adults (n = 424) completed DMQ candidate items and other measures needed for psychometric analyses. A series of iterative analytic procedures (e.g., factor analyses and IRT) were used to derive final DMQ items and scales. The final DMQ has 86 items and includes subscales: (1) Trigger frequency (16 items), (2) Affective Responses (5 items), (3) Physiological Responses (8 items), (4) Cognitive Responses (10 items), (5) Coping Before (6 items), (6) Coping During (10 items), (7) Coping After (5 items), (8) Impairment (12 items), and Beliefs (14 items). Composite scales were derived for overall Symptom Severity (combined Affective, Physiological, and Cognitive subscales) and Coping (combined the three Coping subscales). Depending on the needs of researchers or clinicians, the DMQ may be use in full form, individual subscales, or with the derived composite scales.
Highlights
Described by Jastreboff and Jastreboff in 2001, misophonia is characterized by decreased tolerance and accompanying defensive motivational system responding to certain aversive sounds and contextual cues associated with such stimuli (Brout et al, 2018)
The association between greater misophonia symptoms and problems with mental health has been observed in studies across many countries, including China, Singapore, Brazil, Spain, Poland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States
In addition to including items reflecting symptom severity and impairment in functioning, it was determined a priori to include items that include a wide spectrum of responses to misophonic triggers, difficulties coping before, during and after being triggered, and dysfunctional beliefs related to misophonia
Summary
Described by Jastreboff and Jastreboff in 2001, misophonia is characterized by decreased tolerance and accompanying defensive motivational system responding to certain aversive sounds and contextual cues associated with such stimuli (Brout et al, 2018). Cues (sometimes called “triggers”) commonly are repetitive oral (e.g., eating, chewing, throat clearing) or nasal (e.g., heavy breathing, sniffing; Jager et al, 2020) stimuli. These triggering cues typically are produced by other humans but can be animal-produced (e.g., pets grooming themselves) or generated environmentally (e.g., clock ticking). The diversity of sampling approaches suggests that misophonia can be studied in a general population, and is not limited to those with access to online and social media platforms dedicated to this condition
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