Hyperacusis

What it means

Over-sensitivity to certain frequency ranges of sound.

Hyperacusis refers to a general hypersensitivity to sound of any frequency, and phonophobia to an anxious sensitivity towards specific sound largely independent of its volume. Hyperacusis and phonophobia represent disturbances of central auditory processing without peripheral pathology, often combined with psychosomatic reactions. Listeners with hearing loss often struggle to detect low-level sounds, but as the sound intensity rises above threshold, loudness initially grows at a faster than normal rate, but the growth rate slows with increasing intensity so that normal loudness is achieved at high intensities. This phenomenon is referred to as loudness recruitment. However, in some hearing-impaired listeners,loudness continues to grow more rapidly than normal at suprathreshold intensities causing moderately intense sounds to be perceived as louder than normal, a debilitating condition known as hyperacusis or loudness intolerance.

Rare diseases that can present with this6

The range is how often this sign appears among people diagnosed with each disease — it is not a probability of having any of them. Many of these signs also occur in common, non-rare conditions. A sign on this page is a conversation to have with a clinician, not a conclusion.

Part of the broader category