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Id d3e0a635-0acb-4ef4-abfa-1ad17c242b34
Year 2025
Abstract
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- purpleRed
Aliases
- Psychological effects of misophonia
- (Kurt Tunagur et al., 2025)
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Dv Authors Elif Merve Kurt Tunagur, Mustafa Tolga Tunagur, Beyzanur Atasoy, Enes Sarigedik,
Dv Initial Source Misophonia MOC
Dv Status #status/Bare-bones-review
Dv Limitations • Exclusive medical student sample limits generalizability; unique academic stressors may shape findings. • Exclusion of psychiatric/neurological comorbidities limits applicability to real-world clinical populations. • Cross-sectional design precludes causal inference. • Modest variance explained (17.6%) suggests omitted predictors. • Reliance on self-report; no objective/physiological measures.
Dv Future Directions • Replicate in diverse educational, occupational, and cultural contexts. • Longitudinal designs and ecological momentary assessment to clarify temporal dynamics. • Include additional predictors: sleep quality, trauma exposure, sensory processing sensitivity, academic load, interpersonal difficulties. • Incorporate physiological reactivity measures. • Clinical trials to validate sex-informed treatment pathways.
Dv Relevance • study looking at comorbidities, differences in depression anxiety and cognitive emotion regulation, and sex differences in Misophonia • they found some moderating effects of sex in Misophonia, specifically finding stronger stress and acceptance in males and perspective putting more stronger in females, suggesting a need to consider sex differences in Misophonia treatment approaches.
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Psychological effects of misophonia: an examination of sex differences in depression, anxiety, and cognitive emotion regulation
Status:: #status/Bare-bones-review
Metadata
- Item Type: #journalArticle
- Authors:: Elif Merve Kurt Tunagur, Mustafa Tolga Tunagur, Beyzanur Atasoy, Enes Sarigedik,
- Date Added: October 17, 2025
- URL: https://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12144-025-08451-1
- DOI: 10.1007/s12144-025-08451-1
- Cite Key: kurttunagurPsychologicalEffectsMisophonia2025
- Tags:: #Misophonia, #Bare-bones-review-🦴, #Emotion-Regulation, #anxiety, #depression,
- PDF Attachments
Abstract
| Background/Purpose | Background- • Misophonia involves disproportionate emotional reactions to specific everyday sounds, often disrupting daily life. • A set of eight defining symptoms has been proposed supporting classification as a distinct disorder. • Epidemiological estimates indicate misophonia symptoms in approximately 20–49.1% of the population. • Common trigger sounds include mouth smacking, throat clearing, pen clicking, sighing, and nose-blowing. • Misophonia has been linked to elevated anxiety sensitivity, emotional dysregulation, and difficulties managing stress, particularly when trigger sounds are recurrent. • Sensory and environmental disruptions are increasingly tied to mental health outcomes in youth and university populations. • Sex-based findings in misophonia are inconclusive: some studies show higher prevalence in women, others show no sex difference. • Women tend to report higher anxiety/depression; men show greater externalizing tendencies. • Maladaptive cognitive strategies (catastrophizing, self-blame, rumination) are commonly observed in misophonia. • Men and women reportedly differ in preferred cognitive emotion regulation strategies, but sex differences in misophonia-specific contexts are underexplored. Purpose- • Examine misophonia severity in a university student population. • Investigate associations between misophonia and depression, anxiety, stress, and cognitive emotion regulation strategies. • Test whether sex moderates these associations. |
| Participants/samples | • N = 200 undergraduate medical students at Sakarya University, Türkiye. • 81 male (41.5%), 119 female (58.5%); mean age ~20.9 years. • Inclusion: ≥18 years, undergraduate medical students, fluent in Turkish, self-reported normal hearing. • Exclusion: prior misophonia diagnosis, psychiatric/neurological history, current psychoactive medication use, substance use disorders, hearing impairment, incomplete responses. |
| Measures | • A-MISO-S (Amsterdam Misophonia Scale; cut-off ≥10 for clinically significant misophonia). • DASS-21 (Depression, Anxiety, Stress subscales). • CERQ-SF (nine cognitive emotion regulation subscales). • Researcher-designed sociodemographic questionnaire. |
| Procedures | • Face-to-face survey administration in quiet classroom settings between Oct–Dec 2023. • Participants completed all questionnaires under researcher supervision after providing written informed consent. • Researchers reviewed responses in real-time for completeness. • Analyses: chi-square, independent samples t-tests, Pearson/Spearman correlations, partial correlations controlling for sex, multiple linear regression with sex × predictor interaction terms (enter method). |
| Results | • 23.5% of participants met the A-MISO-S cut-off for misophonia; no significant sex difference in misophonia prevalence. • Misophonic participants showed greater anxiety, depression, and stress than non-misophonic participants across the full sample and within each sex. • Catastrophizing was greater in misophonic participants across both sexes. • Acceptance was lower in misophonic males only; no acceptance difference in females. • No overall sex differences in DASS-21 or CERQ-SF subscale means; no sex differences within misophonic or non-misophonic subgroups. • A-MISO-S correlated positively with all DASS-21 subscales, catastrophizing, and other-blame, and negatively with acceptance; partial correlations controlling for sex preserved these patterns. • DASS-21 subscales correlated positively with self-blame, rumination, catastrophizing, and (for depression and stress) other-blame. • Regression predictors of misophonia severity: anxiety (positive), acceptance (negative), putting into perspective (positive); other-blame approached significance; main effect of sex nonsignificant. • Sex × predictor interactions: anxiety and low acceptance more strongly associated with misophonia in males; putting into perspective more strongly associated with misophonia in females; sex × other-blame nonsignificant. • Model explained ~17.6% of variance in misophonia severity. |
| Discussion/Limits | Conclusion- • Misophonia is associated with elevated anxiety, depression, and stress beyond mere sensory irritation. • Anxiety is the most robust predictor of misophonia severity, consistent with heightened emotional reactivity models. • Maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation (catastrophizing, other-blame) and reduced acceptance characterize misophonic individuals. • Sex moderates emotion regulation–misophonia associations despite no mean-level sex differences in distress or strategy use. • Low acceptance and high anxiety were more strongly associated with misophonia severity in males; the authors suggest that difficulty accepting emotional experiences may heighten sensitivity to trigger sounds • Putting into perspective may function maladaptively in females, reflecting cognitive disengagement or emotional minimization rather than adaptive reappraisal. • Typically positive cognitive strategies are not universally protective and must be interpreted within situational and psychological context. • Sex-informed clinical approaches are warranted: acceptance-based interventions (e.g., ACT) for males; emotion-focused approaches (e.g., Emotion Regulation Therapy, DBT, self-compassion training) for females. • Misophonia-specific therapies (sound desensitization, trigger exposure with response prevention) could be augmented with cognitive-affective components. |
| Limitations:: | • Exclusive medical student sample limits generalizability; unique academic stressors may shape findings. • Exclusion of psychiatric/neurological comorbidities limits applicability to real-world clinical populations. • Cross-sectional design precludes causal inference. • Modest variance explained (17.6%) suggests omitted predictors. • Reliance on self-report; no objective/physiological measures. |
| Future Directions:: | • Replicate in diverse educational, occupational, and cultural contexts. • Longitudinal designs and ecological momentary assessment to clarify temporal dynamics. • Include additional predictors: sleep quality, trauma exposure, sensory processing sensitivity, academic load, interpersonal difficulties. • Incorporate physiological reactivity measures. • Clinical trials to validate sex-informed treatment pathways. |
| Relevance:: | • study looking at comorbidities, differences in depression anxiety and cognitive emotion regulation, and sex differences in Misophonia • they found some moderating effects of sex in Misophonia, specifically finding stronger stress and acceptance in males and perspective putting more stronger in females, suggesting a need to consider sex differences in Misophonia treatment approaches. |
Notes
key terms and concepts
misophonia – intense emotional reaction to specific everyday sounds (e.g., chewing, breathing, repetitive tapping) eliciting disproportionate anger, distress, or anxiety.
A-MISO-S – Amsterdam Misophonia Scale; six-item self-report instrument based on the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale, scored 0–24.
DASS-21 – Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21; three 7-item subscales measuring depression, anxiety, and stress.
CERQ-SF – Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire Short Form; 18-item instrument assessing nine cognitive emotion regulation strategies.
cognitive emotion regulation strategies – cognitive strategies used to regulate emotions; CERQ-SF subscales include self-blame, other-blame, catastrophizing, positive refocusing, positive reappraisal, acceptance, refocus on planning, putting into perspective, and rumination.
putting into perspective – cognitive emotion regulation strategy involving reframing the magnitude or significance of an emotional event.
acceptance – cognitive emotion regulation strategy involving acceptance of emotional experiences.
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Sex-moderation framing
- Mean-level sex differences absent; sex differences emerge only in interaction structure with cognitive emotion regulation.
- Authors frame "putting into perspective" as potentially disengaging/minimizing in females, challenging its assumed adaptiveness.
Clinical translation
- Authors propose CERQ-based individualized assessment as a starting point for sex-tailored intervention selection.
contextual statement
In a 2025 study, Kurt Tunagur attempted to characterize the psychological correlates of misophonia and test sex-moderated associations with cognitive emotion regulation by administering the A-MISO-S, DASS-21, and CERQ-SF to 200 Turkish undergraduate medical students.
summary statement
In a 2025 study, Kurt Tunagur examined misophonia severity and its associations with depression, anxiety, stress, and cognitive emotion regulation strategies, testing sex as a moderator, by administering the A-MISO-S, DASS-21, and CERQ-SF to 200 university medical students. They found that misophonic participants reported greater anxiety, depression, stress, catastrophizing, and other-blame, with lower acceptance in males only; regression with interaction terms indicated anxiety and low acceptance were more strongly associated with misophonia in males, while putting into perspective was more strongly associated with misophonia in females. From this they concluded that misophonia involves elevated emotional distress and specific cognitive emotion regulation profiles that differ by sex, supporting tailored interventions such as acceptance-based therapies for males and emotion-focused approaches for females.