By Marcello Cherchi, MD PhD
For clinicians
Overview
Misokinesia (“hatred of movement”) has been described as, “a psychological phenomenon that is defined as a strong negative affective or emotional response to the sight of someone else’s small and repetitive movements, such as seeing someone mindlessly fidgeting with a hand or foot ” (Jaswal, De Bleser et al. 2021). This has been recognized relatively recently (2021), and there is almost no literature on the topic. In some respects it resembles misophonia (“hatred of sounds”), about which there is a better developed literature (Potgieter, MacDonald et al. 2019, Siepsiak and Dragan 2019, Ferrer-Torres and Gimenez-Llort 2022, Neacsiu, Szymkiewicz et al. 2022, Zai, Dembo et al. 2022).
As of this writing, one case report (Webb 2022) of a patient with both misophonia and misokinesia described symptomatic improvement on propranolol 60 mg.
We have observed misokinesia in a sub-population of otoneurology patients — specifically, patients with migraine and migraine associated vertigo (MAV). At present we view this as a manifestation of migrainous visual hypersensitivity, but research on the topic is needed.
References
Ferrer-Torres A, Gimenez-Llort L (2022) Misophonia: A Systematic Review of Current and Future Trends in This Emerging Clinical Field. Int J Environ Res Public Health 19. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19116790
Jaswal SM, De Bleser AKF, Handy TC (2021) Misokinesia is a sensitivity to seeing others fidget that is prevalent in the general population. Sci Rep 11: 17204. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-96430-4
Neacsiu AD, Szymkiewicz V, Galla JT, Li B, Kulkarni Y, Spector CW (2022) The neurobiology of misophonia and implications for novel, neuroscience-driven interventions. Front Neurosci 16: 893903. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2022.893903
Potgieter I, MacDonald C, Partridge L, Cima R, Sheldrake J, Hoare DJ (2019) Misophonia: A scoping review of research. J Clin Psychol 75: 1203-1218. doi: 10.1002/jclp.22771
Siepsiak M, Dragan W (2019) Misophonia – a review of research results and theoretical concepts. Psychiatr Pol 53: 447-458. doi: 10.12740/PP/92023
Webb J (2022) beta-Blockers for the Treatment of Misophonia and Misokinesia. Clin Neuropharmacol 45: 13-14. doi: 10.1097/WNF.0000000000000492
Zai G, Dembo J, Levitsky N, Richter MA (2022) Misophonia: A Detailed Case Series and Literature Review. Prim Care Companion CNS Disord 24. doi: 10.4088/PCC.21cr03124
