Psychological Intervention for Misophonia

The investigators are proposing to test Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)+ traditional audiological behavioral intervention as an integrated, multi-disciplinary approach for the assessment and treatment of misophonia. Participants will be 60 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.

Study Overview

• Status: Active, not recruiting
• Conditions: Misophonia
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Acceptance and commitment therapy; Behavioral: Progressive relaxation training

Detailed Description

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.

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.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 60
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Utah
    • Logan, Utah, United States, 84341
      • Utah State University

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

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).

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Double

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Acceptance and commitment therapy; ACT teaches skills to develop acceptance, mindfulness, and defusion from difficult internal experiences while increasing connections with personal values and encouraging meaningful behavioral changes. ACT for misophonia combines core ACT processes with a traditional audiological behavioral intervention for a integrated, multi-disciplinary approach for the assessment and treatment of misophonia. Treatment begins with a brief focus on the behavioral intervention, followed by the teaching of ACT skills to support the use of the behavioral methods. The intervention consists of 12 total individual sessions of ACT+behavioral management.	Behavioral: Acceptance and commitment therapy; ACT teaches skills to develop acceptance, mindfulness, and defusion from difficult internal experiences while increasing connections with personal values and encouraging meaningful behavioral changes. ACT for misophonia combines core ACT processes with a traditional audiological behavioral intervention for a integrated, multi-disciplinary approach for the assessment and treatment of misophonia. Treatment begins with a brief focus on the behavioral intervention, followed by the teaching of ACT skills to support the use of the behavioral methods. The intervention consists of 12 total individual sessions of ACT+behavioral management.; Other Names: ACT
Active Comparator: Progressive relaxation training; PRT for misophonia consists of basic psychoeducation for misophonia followed by PRT. PRT involves learning to tense and relax muscles. Early sessions focus on tensing and relaxing smaller muscle groups, while later sessions focus on larger muscle groups. Final sessions focus on relaxation as produced by recalling previous relaxation and a review of skills learned. PRT consists of 12 individual total sessions.	Behavioral: Progressive relaxation training; PRT for misophonia consists of basic psychoeducation for misophonia followed by PRT. PRT involves learning to tense and relax muscles. Early sessions focus on tensing and relaxing smaller muscle groups, while later sessions focus on larger muscle groups. Final sessions focus on relaxation as produced by recalling previous relaxation and a review of skills learned. PRT consists of 12 individual total sessions.; Other Names: PRT

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Misophonia Questionnaire	Self-report of misophonia symptoms. There are two subscales. The first subscale (misophonia symptoms) ranges from 0 to 76 and the second (misophonia severity) ranges from 1 to 15. For both subscales, higher scores indicate worse outcomes.	9-12 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Utah State University
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Michael Twohig, PhD, Utah State University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): October 24, 2022
• Primary Completion (Estimated): October 30, 2025
• Study Completion (Estimated): April 30, 2026

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: October 26, 2022
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 26, 2022
• First Posted (Actual): November 1, 2022

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): July 26, 2024
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 24, 2024
• Last Verified: December 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: 12981

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No