Is there such a thing as a noise sensitivity disorder?



Answers:
yes


Noise, noise sensitivity and psychiatric disorder: epidemiological and psychophysiological studies.



Academic Department of Psychiatry, University College and Middlesex School of Medicine, London.

Noise, a prototypical environmental stressor, has clear health effects in causing hearing loss but other health effects are less evident. Noise exposure may lead to minor emotional symptoms but the evidence of elevated levels of aircraft noise leading to psychiatric hospital admissions and psychiatric disorder in the community is contradictory. Despite this there are well documented associations between noise exposure and changes in performance, sleep disturbance and emotional reactions such as annoyance. Moreover, annoyance is associated with both environmental noise level and psychological and physical symptoms, psychiatric disorder and use of health services. It seems likely that existing psychiatric disorder contributes to high levels of annoyance. However, there is also the possibility that tendency to annoyance may be a risk factor for psychiatric morbidity. Although noise level explains a significant proportion of the variance in annoyance, the other major factor, confirmed in many studies, is subjective sensitivity to noise. Noise sensitivity is also related to psychiatric disorder. The evidence for noise sensitivity being a risk factor for psychiatric disorder would be greater if it were a stable personality characteristic, and preceded psychiatric morbidity. The stability of noise sensitivity and whether it is merely secondary to psychiatric disorder or is a risk factor for psychiatric disorder as well as annoyance is examined in two studies in this monograph: a six-year follow-up of a group of highly noise sensitive and low noise sensitive women; and a longitudinal study of depressed patients and matched control subjects examining changes in noise sensitivity with recovery from depression. A further dimension of noise effects concerns the impact of noise on the autonomic nervous system. Most physiological responses to noise habituate rapidly but in some people physiological responses persist. It is not clear whether this sub-sample is also subjectively sensitive to noise and whether failure to habituate to environmental noise may also represent a biological indicator of vulnerability to psychiatric disorder. In these studies noise sensitivity was found to be moderately stable and associated with current psychiatric disorder and a disposition to negative affectivity. Noise sensitivity levels did fall with recovery from depression but still remained high, suggesting an underlying high level of noise sensitivity. Noise sensitivity was related to higher tonic skin conductance and heart rate and greater defence/startle responses during noise exposure in the laboratory. Noise sensitive people attend more to noises, discriminate more between noises, find noises more threatening and out of their control, and react to, and adapt to noises more slowly than less noise sensitive people.

Yes, I think there is.
must be. I cannot stand high pitched sounds. Literally hurts my ears.
I dont know.bling two points (-:
I'm not certain.but there might be. I know that there are certain other disorders which have similar side-problems associated with them. Perhaps you should contact your doctor about it?
yes if fact there is , a guy in my therapy group is very sensitive to noise, so sensitive that he wears ear plugs most of the time,, and takes zanax also my brother and daughter cant stand noise but they arent as bad as the guy with the earplugs.
maybe..check out!!
there is. will cause you headache
yes, get on line and order "betrayal of the brain"-it helps explain this and other disorders
yes
Yes, and I have found 2 books on this topic, from the cambridge library in NY. : Noise, noise sensitivity and psychiatric disorder : epidemiological and psychophysiological
I am pretty sure there is. constant noise is unhealthy..
you are mentaly ill
Hyperacusis is a condition that arises from a problem in the way the brain’s central auditory processing center perceives noise. It can often lead to pain and discomfort.

Individuals with hyperacusis have difficulty tolerating sounds which do not seem loud to others, such as the noise from running faucet water, riding in a car, walking on leaves, dishwasher, fan on the refrigerator, shuffling papers. Although all sounds may be perceived as too loud, high frequency sounds may be particularly troublesome.

As one might suspect, the quality of life for individuals with hyperacusis can be greatly compromised. For those with a severe intolerance to sound, it is difficult and sometimes impossible to function in an every day environment with all its ambient noise. Hyperacusis can contribute to social isolation, phonophobia (fear of normal sounds), and depression.


Prevalence And Causes Of Hyperacusis

Many people experience sensitivity to sound, but true hyperacusis is rare, affecting approximately one in 50,000 individuals. The disorder can affect people of all ages in one or both ears. Individuals are usually not born with hyperacusis, but may develop a narrow tolerance to sound, most commonly from traumatically loud noises, which can be sudden or cumulative over time. Other common causes include:
Head injury
Ear damage from toxins or medication
Lyme disease
Air bag deployment
Viral infections involving the inner ear or facial nerve (Bell’s palsy)
Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) syndrome
There are a variety of neurologic conditions that may be associated with hyperacusis, including:

Post-traumatic stress disorder
Chronic fatigue syndrome
Tay-Sach's disease
Some forms of epilepsy
Valium dependence
Depression
Migraine headaches
Hyperacusis is also more common in children with: central auditory processing disorder, learning disabilities, attention deficit disorder (ADD), head injury, autism, and autistic-like behaviors.


Diagnosis Of Hyperacusis

Individuals who suspect they may have hyperacusis should seek an evaluation by an otolaryngologist (ear, nose, and throat doctor). The initial consultation is likely to include a full audiologic evaluation (with a hearing test), a recording of medical history, and a medical evaluation by a physician. Counseling about evaluation findings and treatment options may also be provided at that time.

Treatment For Hyperacusis

There are no specific corrective surgical or medical treatments for hyperacusis. However, sound therapy may be used to “retrain” the auditory processing center of the brain to accept every day sounds. This involves the use of a noise-generating device worn on the affected ear or ears. Those suffering from hyperacusis may be uncomfortable with placing sound directly in their ear, but the device produces a gentle static-like sound (white noise) that is barely audible. Completion of sound therapy may take up to 12 months, and usually improves sound tolerance.

Because social situations are often painfully loud for those with hyperacusis, withdrawal, social isolation, and depression are common. For this reason, appropriate counseling may also be an important aspect of treatment.

Hearing Loss

Surprisingly, individuals with hyperacusis have little or no detectable hearing loss. In fact, hearing tests usually indicate normal hearing sensitivity and often register at minus decibel levels. Counter to what one might think, this does not mean that those with hyperacusis hear better than others. Instead, it is a clear indication of a problem in the way the brain processes sound.

Hearing loss coupled with low tolerance to sound is termed recruitment, a condition where soft sounds cannot be heard and loud sounds are intolerable (or distorted). For example, a person with recruitment may have hearing loss below 50 decibels while at the same time; sound above 80 decibels may be intolerable. The result is a narrow range of comfortable hearing.

Relation To Tinnitus

Hyperacusis is strongly associated with tinnitus, a condition commonly referred to as “ringing in the ears.” Nearly 36 million Americans suffer from tinnitus; an estimated one of every thousand also has hyperacusis. Individuals can have tinnitus and hyperacusis at the same time, or hyperacusis may be a precursor to the development of tinnitus. If both occur at the same time, hyperacusis is generally treated first.
Surely. I struggled with a hearing disability many years. People
tell me turn the TV up so I can hear it. But I have auditory nerve
damage and a loud TV hurts me.
I sometimes think all the noise pollution , and visual sights of a Big City are in fact causing a sensory overload. Causing the nervous system to break down, resulting in many of these social anxiety types of disorders.
Yes, but it could be hyperacusis. I suffer from tinnitus and have bouts of hyperacusis when the smallest noise drives me up a wall.
I doubt it is psychological.
It seems to me a physical thing. Your ear reaches an uncomfortable level of noise and sends a message to the brain,

"I'M being injured so it's time to cover me up and get outta here."

Some people are more sensitive than others regarding noise, some in regards to sunlight, etc...

One of the guys I worked with had to wear ear plugs all the time or he would get a terrible ear ache and then a headache just from the noise!
That must be what I have. Noise hurts. Coughing, or sharp sounds. Bring physical pain.
shhiiit i hate noise. silence
yes, it involves hearing beyond the normal human threshood and hearing by bone conduction, I have a form of it, I hear a train coming 2 miles away. Most people only are aware of it half mile away.

Bass penetrates me by bone conduction and is painfull to me and drives me absolutely to despair.

I am also tone deaf and do not know most voices and sometimes cannot tell male or female
Many of the students I work with that have aspergers or pdd (pervasive developmental disorder) also have noise sensitivity issues. So much so that many of them wear instruments to muffle out sounds.
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