An examination of the relationship between misophonia, anxiety sensitivity, and obsessive-compulsive symptoms

Misophonia is a decreased sound tolerance condition in which specific sounds elicit an intense negative emotional response. The aims of the current study were to examine how obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) symptoms and misophonia are related, and to examine the possibility that the relationship between anxiety sensitivity (AS) and misophonia may be explained in part by the presence of OCD symptoms. Data were collected from both undergraduate students (N = 451) and community participants (N = 377) using Amazon's MTurk. Participants completed an online survey assessing for decreased sound tolerance conditions, individual differences variables, and clinical variables. Misophonia was more strongly related to obsessive than to compulsive components of OCD, consistent with case reports of obsessive thoughts in misophonia. In addition, OCD symptoms partially mediated the relationship between AS severity and misophonia symptom severity. These results align with the theorized role of anxiety sensitivity in OCD and in misophonia, and provide suggested directions for future research into the mechanisms of misophonia.