Can Hyperacusis Be Treated or Cured?
If you suffer from hyperacusis, or loudness intolerance, we have good news. Treatments are available and scientists are working to improve them and find cures.
Get Updates in Your Inbox
Please subscribe to our monthly digital newsletter to stay up to date on the latest research.
What Does Hyperacusis Feel Like?
There are four known subtypes of hyperacusis, each with a different primary symptom:
Loudness hyperacusis: moderately intense sounds are perceived as too loud
Annoyance hyperacusis: a negative emotional reaction to sounds
Pain hyperacusis: a stabbing sensation (in ear, jaw, or neck) at much lower sound levels than would typically prompt pain
Fear hyperacusis: a negative response to sounds that may cause patients to avoid social situations or feel anxiety in anticipation of hearing these sounds
What Treatments Are Available?
Please note that the following is general information only. HHF does not offer medical advice. Please consult your hearing health professional with any specific questions about your auditory health and healthcare.
Presently, there are no specific surgical or medical treatments for hyperacusis. Treatments aim to reduce physical symptoms and learning coping strategies to handle the stress of hyperacusis.
Sound therapy: This is used to retrain the brain to accept everyday sounds. Please note that while some people report improvement with sound therapy, some report that noise exposure from the sound therapy made their symptoms worse. Patients should ask their hearing care professionals about this before undertaking any form of sound therapy and to stop if they experience pain.
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT): This method of counseling focuses on restructuring negative reactions and regaining control over the condition. It involves education, relaxation training, specifically prescribed exposure to sounds, and cognitive therapy to reduce stress and beliefs associated with hearing certain sounds..
Hyperacusis Activities Treatment: With this treatment, the patient’s goal is to be able to recognize the relationship between the loudness of a sound and his or her reaction to it. The counseling components include: thoughts and emotions, hearing and communication, sleep, and concentration.
How Is Hearing Health Foundation Helping?
Hearing Health Foundation (HHF) identifies and funds scientists who work to improve our understanding of hyperacusis, in order to unlock new treatments and eventual cures.
Most recently, HHF-funded scientists have observed that a noninvasive, sound-evoked fMRI can be used to identify regions of neural hyperactivity throughout the brain in an animal model of hyperacusis, and have identified pain-related molecules in the auditory pathway as a result of noise exposure.
Updates From Hearing Health Foundation
Les Paul persisted to refine the design for a solid body electric guitar, create multiple gold records, invent today’s recording techniques, be inducted into multiple halls of fame, and play his guitar until two months before he died at 94 years old in August 2009.