Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms and Sound Sensitivities: Comparing Misophonia and Hyperacusis

Several previous studies have found an association between misophonia and obsessive-compulsive (O-C) symptoms. The goal of the present research was to examine the relationship between O-C symptoms and two different types of sound sensitivities: misophonia and hyperacusis. We did so in a large on-line sample of university students (N = 1,094), a subset of whom completed in-person audiological and psychological assessments (N = 102). We utilized a multi-trait, multi-method approach, measuring misophonia, hyperacusis, and O-C symptoms using both questionnaires and either clinician ratings or laboratory assessment. For the sake of examining specificity, interview-based depression ratings were also examined. The associations were generally consistent regardless of how O-C symptoms, misophonia, and hyperacusis were measured – O-C symptoms were associated with both types of sound sensitivities. Thus, the results suggest that sensory sensitivities, rather than misophonia specifically, are associated with O-C symptoms. Depression symptoms were not significantly associated with hyperacusis and were less strongly associated with misophonia than were O-C symptoms, suggesting that the associations between O-C symptoms and sound sensitivities are not simply artifacts of shared variance with general psychological distress.