For a piece in ENT & Audiology News, Hyperacusis Research president Bryan Pollard wrote a piece entitled “Unravelling the mystery of hyperacusis with pain.”
Pain has often been completely overlooked as a component of hyperacusis. The word “hyperacusis” has more than a dozen definitions, with only two including the term “pain.” Patients gain no benefit from the nomenclature debate around disorders of sound tolerance, and are often miscategorized as having a psychologically-based fear of sound, when in fact they experience physical pain from sound.
Setbacks — or worsening with additional noise exposure — have been neglected, but are common for hyperacusis patients, as shown in a survey of patients. Recovery from setbacks is proportional to the loudness and/or duration of the impacting noise. Patients learn from painful experience that a key to progress is is minimize setbacks. Clinicians, unfortunately, rarely understand the very real risk of making the condition worse.
Scientific research is ongoing to uncover the source of this pain.
Read the full piece here.