Development and psychometric exploration of a semi-structured clinical interview for Misophonia
Rachel E. Guetta, Clair Cassiello‐Robbins, Deepika Anand, M. Zachary Rosenthal
Abstract
Misophonia is a newly described disorder associated with significant emotional distress, functional impairment, and a wide range of mental health problems (e.g., mood, anxiety, and personality disorders). Although recent studies have begun to validate self-report measures of misophonia, no psychometrically validated interviews have been developed. To advance a scientific understanding of misophonia, rigorously developed semi-structured interviews are needed as a complementary measurement approach to self-report inventories. Accordingly, the aim of this study was to develop and begin preliminarily validating a semi-structured clinical interview for misophonia. We took an iterative, grassroots approach to item generation and interview development involving key stakeholders (i.e., misophonia sufferers, experts in the field). Initial psychometric analyses from the current sample (n = 30) evidenced excellent preliminary estimates for internal consistency, convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity. Results from this study provide preliminary support for the Duke Misophonia Interview, and we recommend that this interviewer-rated measure be iteratively developed and refined using larger and more diverse samples.