Are Beta Blockers, such as propranolol, effective at treating misophonia?
There has been a lot of excitement and misunderstanding about the use of β-Blockers, such as propranolol, for treating misophonia and misokinesia.
This stems from this paper: β-Blockers for the Treatment of Misophonia and Misokinesia [January 2022] by Jadon Webb [Clinical Neuropharmacology]
The first thing to note about this paper is that it is a single case study. This means it is about treating only one person. That's all. So, it's arguably way too minimal of a report to draw any conclusions from.
This paper, as a single case study, lacks a large sample set, a control group, adjustments for things like placebo effect and other factors. It doesn't answer many questions outside of what one patient experienced. We aren't sure what the long-term outlook would be, and so on.
While this paper is interesting, it is likely way too incomplete and too early to make any judgments regarding using propranolol for treating misophonia.
What is needed is a much larger study with many more participants which includes the necessary factors I named above, and more. If the results of that much larger study show promise, then it needs to be published and then other researchers would need to duplicate it themselves with a different set of participants. Those results would then need to be critiqued, analyzed, and fine-tuned in additional studies.
If, after that process, propranolol shows promise in treating the symptoms of misophonia and the medical community agrees, then that could be very exciting. Propranolol is widely available and very affordable, even without insurance. But we aren't at that point yet.
Anecdotal input indicates that a larger study is beginning to take shape and we look forward to seeing the results. We are also intrigued by Dr. Webb’s journeying into much-needed research on possible medications for misophonia and misokinesia.
As a person who has struggled with misophonia myself for decades, I can completely understand how anything that could be a treatment—something, anything that might relieve our suffering and make life more manageable—is notable. But, we try to also be realistic about what is showing up in that realm as we have seen many people, with very high hopes who are at their wit's end, be disappointed by various claims about misophonia treatments that have been overhyped.
If propranolol or another medication shows promise, through thorough testing and study, as a possible treatment for misophonia, we will certainly report on this.