The Effect of Misophonia on the Severity of Depression and Anxiety in Multiple Sclerosis

Abstract

Objective: Depression and anxiety are common and well defined psychiatric comorbidities in multiple sclerosis (MS), which decrease the quality of life. Misophonia is an underrecognized condition that consists of abnormal emotional responses to specific environmental sounds or rarely to images. Limbic system impairments can be the leading cause of both psychiatric disorders in MS and misophonia. The prevalence of misophonia and its relationship with depression and anxiety have not been studied in the MS population. This study aimed to investigate the frequency of misophonia in MS and its effects on depression and anxiety severity. A secondary aim was to evaluate the effect of the factors associated with MS on the misophonia severity. Materials and Methods: Fifty-nine patients with MS were recruited for the study. MS type, disease duration, attack frequency per year and smoking habbits were evaluated. The presence and severity of misophonia, and depression and anxiety scores in MS group were compared with 63 healthy controls. Results: The frequency of misophonia was significantly higher in MS group (37.3%) compared to controls (19.4%) (p=0.046). Severe depression (23.7%) and anxiety (28.8%) were more frequent in the MS group compared to controls (1.6% and 11.1% p<0.001). Patients with MS and misophonia (MSwM) had a significantly higher frequency of severe depression (p=0.004) and anxiety (p=0.019) than patients with MS without misophonia (MSwoM). MS type, duration, attack frequency and smoking habbits were comparable between MSwM and MSwoM. There was a significant positive correlation between the misophonia score and the Beck depression score (p=0.029) in patients with MS. Conclusion: Misophonia is frequent in the MS population and increases the severity of depression and anxiety.

Keywords

• multiple sclerosis
• misophonia
• depression
• anxiety