Date of Award

5-2024

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Honors Thesis

Department

Pharmacy

First Advisor

Tonya Bergeson

Second Advisor

Susanna Scott

Abstract

Misophonia is a newly recognized disorder, defined as the hatred of specific trigger sounds and characterized by extreme negative emotional responses upon hearing trigger sounds (Webber, Johnson, Storch 2013). Although some studies have suggested that misophonia worsens with age (Rouw & Erfanian, 2018), little is yet known about this progression. The purpose of the current study was to examine how misophonia develops from onset until college, what sounds specifically trigger college-aged students, and how misophonia relates to sound-related skills such as playing instruments, taking music lessons, and speaking multiple languages. An online survey was conducted through Butler’s SONA system and included two parts. The first part asked the participants about their background, knowledge of misophonia, and trigger sounds. The second part was the Duke Misophonia Questionnaire, a diagnostic test for level of severity of misophonia. Of 71 participants, 5.6% were male- and 94.3% were female-identifying. The results of the study showed that participants who noted their misophonia changing as they aged currently have higher levels of misophonia impairment. Additionally, participants who took music lessons had higher rates of self-diagnosing for misophonia, but did not have significantly higher impairment scores. The significance of the results show that participants whose misophonia did change over time were significantly more impaired by their misophonia in their everyday lives. Additionally, there may be a connection between studying music and misophonia. These findings add to the belief that misophonia does develop as we age, and when it does change, it tends to become more debilitating.

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