While most people may be linked to feel uncomfortable when someone scratches their nails in a table, those who suffer from misophonie Can have an equally intense reaction to sounds such as slurping, snoring, breathing and chewing.
A survey in 2023 suggests that Misophonie is more widespread than it did not think about it, and research in Europe suggests that this condition shares genes with anxiety, depressionand ptsd.
Psychiatrist at the University of Amsterdam Dirk Smit and colleagues analyzed genetic data Psychiatric Genomics Consortium, the United Kingdom Biobank and databases 23andme and found that people who identify themselves as having misophonia were more likely to have genes associated with psychiatric disorders as well as tinnitus.
Patients with tinnitus – persistent and stride ringing in the ears – are also more likely to have Psychological symptoms of depression and anxiety.
“There was also overlapping with SSPT genetics”, Smit said Eric W. DOLAN at Psychost.
“This means that genes which give sensitivity to the SSPT also increase the probability of misophonie, and which could indicate a shared neurobiological system which affects both. And this could suggest that the treatment techniques used for the SSPT could also be used for Misophony. “
This does not mean misophonia and these other conditions necessarily have shared mechanisms, only that some of the genetic risk factors can be similar.
Previous research People found who suffer from misophonia are more likely to internalize their distress. Smit and Team’s Research, published in 2023, also supported this, showing solid links with personality traits such as concern, guilt, loneliness and neuroticism.
Answers to a trigger sound can go from irritation and anger to distress that interfere with daily life.
“It has been supported … that misophonie is based on feelings of guilt with regard to irritation and anger evoked rather than behavioral expressions of anger itself which causes distress”, ” to write Smit and team.
People with Autism spectrum disorder ( Tsa) were less likely to feel misophonia. This was unexpected because those with TSA have a decrease in sound tolerance.
“Our results suggest that Misophonie and TSA are relatively independent disorders with regard to genomic variation”, researchers Write in their article.
“This raises the possibility that other forms of misophonia exist, those which are mainly motivated by the conditioning of anger or another negative emotivity to specific trigger sounds moderate by personality traits.”
Smit and his colleagues claim that their data was mainly European, so that the same links may not appear in different populations. In addition, Misophonie has not been medically diagnosed in their data samples, only self -depressed, which can also distort the results.
But their study also provides clues to know where additional research could concentrate to find the biological mechanism behind Misophony.
This research was published in Borders in neuroscience.
A previous version of this article was published in October 2024.