Analysis of concrete expressions of patient's hyperacusis

Abstract

　　Hyperacusis is an auditory disorder in which sounds of normal volume are perceived as being too loud or even painfully loud. There are some different varieties of hyperacusis other than tinnitus that occur even in the absence of loud environmental sounds or autophony, that arise with one's own voice. There are various kinds of concrete expressions for describing hyperacusis symptoms, such as “ringing”, “bigger or louder” and “cracked”, however, the clinical significance of distinguishing among these expressions remains unclear. Therefore, we analyzed the expressions used to describe the symptoms of hyperacusis and their clinical significance in 168 patients. Of the 168 patients, 113 had a history of sudden sensorineural hearing loss, 24 had age-related hearing loss, 12 patients had normal hearing function, and the remaining 19 had other kinds of ear diseases. The most frequent complaint was “ringing”. Therefore, “ringing” may represent a typical nonspecific expression of hyperacusis. Descriptions such as “cracked” and “doubling” were more frequent in the group of patients with hearing loss than in the normal hearing group. However, the expression “bigger or louder” was particularly more frequent in the normal hearing group than in the group with hearing loss. We believe that these differences serve to highlight the different pathologies underlying the development of so-called hyperacusis.