News & Events

There are several misophonia questionnaires available for people to use. But how do you know which one is the right one for you?

In this campaign, we ask MRF funded investigators and researchers about their work developing and validating misophonia questionnaires, and why people with misophonia should take the results of one questionnaire or another to their physician. Read on to learn more about the Misophonia Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (Miso-AAQ).

Q: What is the purpose of this questionnaire? How is it used for diagnostic, treatment evaluation, and research purposes?

A: The purpose of this questionnaire is to help understand how the person with misophonia experiences and interacts with their reactions to triggers. It is helpful in tracking if the client is learning acceptance and mindfulness skills in response to triggers (the types of skills taught in acceptance and commitment therapy).

Q: What does it mean for a questionnaire to be validated? Why is this important?

A: Being validated basically means the questionnaire measures what we want it to measure; in our case being psychologically flexible with triggers. Also, we hope the questionnaire is useful in that it is not susceptible to little changes in the client’s life but does change when the client makes therapy gains.

Q: What gaps (clinically and for research purposes) exist with the current questionnaires? And what ongoing research may be in the works to address those?

A: There are lots of gains that need to occur in the assessment and measurement of misophonia. One example is what we are trying to accomplish with the Miso-AAQ, we need measures of the psychological changes we hope to see because of therapy.

Q: How does the Misophonia Acceptance and Action Questionnaire measure misophonia compared to other questionnaires? Has it been validated yet?

I think it is the only measure of psychological flexibility in misophonia. The Miso-AAQ is partially validated but, like many areas, it needs more work.

Q: Why should someone with misophonia bring the results of the Misophonia Acceptance and Action Questionnaire to their clinician/physician over other questionnaires?

A: I think the Miso-AAQ would be the most useful to a clinician who is trying to figure out what type of therapy to engage in with a client. If the client had a high score on the Miso-AAQ that would indicate that Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) would be a logical type of therapy for them.

Q: Are there resources available for clinicians and researchers to learn more about the Misophonia Acceptance and Action Questionnaire or how to use it effectively?

A: There are a few publications on the Miso-AAQ as well as ACT for misophonia. Reading up on that line of work would be helpful. These publications and information about ACT for misophonia can be found on our website (linked below).

To learn more about the Misophonia Acceptance and Action Questionnaire, click here. To explore Dr. Twohig’s ACT work on misophonia, visit his website here. We thank him and his team for their dedication to misophonia research and advocacy.