Psychological Intervention for Misophonia

Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is a promising psychotherapy for supporting traditional behavioral methods for treating misophonia, but has not been previously tested. ACT teaches skills to develop acceptance, mindfulness, and defusion from difficult internal experiences while increasing connections with personal values and encouraging meaningful behavioral changes. We are proposing to test ACT+ traditional audiological behavioral intervention as an integrated, multi-disciplinary approach for the assessment and treatment of misophonia. Participants will be 40 adults with misophonia and will be randomly assigned to receive 12 sessions of ACT+behavioral intervention or receive 12 weeks of progressive relaxation training+psychoeducation (PRT; a commonly used active control condition) after undergoing a comprehensive psychological and audiological evaluation. This study will help determine if ACT+behavioral intervention is a feasible and acceptable treatment for misophonia, help clarify active psychological mechanisms of misophonia, and determine whether or not this combination of services can effectively help individuals diagnosed with misophonia.

Inclusion Criteria:Individuals seeking treatment for misophonia.Meet clinical cut-off for misphonia (minimum score of five on the Misophonia Questionnaire).Stable on psychotropic medication for at least 30 days.English speaking.Exclusion Criteria:Presence of psychological and/or neurological impairments that would preclude someone from participating in the study or exceed misophonia as the primary presenting problem (e.g. active self-harm or need for treatment for psychosis).