Photo Credit: Hyperacusis Research
By Lauren McGrath
Hearing Health Foundation (HHF) Emerging Research Grants (ERG) grant funder Hyperacusis Research—a nonprofit dedicated to developing effective treatments for hyperacusis and to funding research that will eliminate the underlying mechanisms that cause hyperacusis—has a new reason to fight to cure the noise intolerance disorder.
Cindy, 14 years old, has suffered from hyperacusis since she was blasted in the face with an airhorn one year ago. The blast almost immediately prompted “a burst of pain in [her] ear” that made it “feel like someone was stabbing [her].” Six months and several doctors’ visits later, an occupational therapist recognized her symptoms and diagnosed her with the disorder, which causes Cindy to experience pain at low levels of sound relative to what a person with typical hearing can withstand.
Once a happy and social eighth-grader, Cindy now rarely leaves her home. Secluded from the painful sounds of the outside world, her house has become “her sanctuary,” her mother explains. Her intolerance of everyday noises like the school cafeteria and teachers’ voices has forced her to leave public school in exchange for an isolating homeschool experience. “The thing I hate most is that I can’t see friends,” Cindy shares.
Cindy suffers from one of four hyperacusis subtypes called pain hyperacusis. The other three types, according to Hyperacusis Research, are loudness hyperacusis (which causes moderately intense sounds to be perceived as very loud), annoyance hyperacusis (which causes negative emotional reactions to sounds), and fear hyperacusis (which prompts an aversive response to sounds that causes anticipatory response and avoidance behavior). Specific medical treatments, at the moment, do not yet exist for pain hyperacusis.
Those inspired to help Cindy can donate to Hyperacusis Research to advance the ontological knowledge of hyperacusis through research grants, including those awarded to HHF’s ERG investigators.
Since 2015, Hyperacusis Research has generously funded grants for a total of five ERG investigators focused on hyperacusis at the University at Buffalo, Oregon Health and Science University, and Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. You can learn more about our ERG researchers’ efforts to better understand the mechanisms, causes, diagnosis, and treatments of hyperacusis and severe forms of loudness intolerance here.
We need your help supporting innovative hearing and balance science through our Emerging Research Grants program. Please make a contribution today.
