Season’s Greetings 🎄

As we approach the end of another year and holidays season, we would like to thank you for reading our misophonia blogs and research articles, watching our videos on tinnitus and hyperacusis and taking part in our monthly lunch time webinars.

This year, Hashir International was recognised as an independent research institute (Read here for more information). We could not have achieved this without the support and academic collaborations with universities of Porto, Surrey, Ghent, Cambridge, Oxford, University College London, King’s College London, Florida Atlantic University, and Manipal College. Being an independent research institute means we can choose topics and studies that we feel are relevant and important to the patient populations that we serve. Our main priority is delivering high quality care for our patients. Our treatments are delivered by a multidisciplinary team of internationally renowned specialists who are supported by our team of clinical audiology and psychology supervisors. Research on our premier therapy package has shown very good results in helping patients to manage their symptoms of misophonia, tinnitus and hyperacusis and significantly improve their quality of life.

A few days ago, one patient wrote to our office saying:
“The methodology that Dr Aazh developed, and delivered through the expert counselling by Trish, have had a major positive impact on the quality of life for me in dealing with tinnitus. I hope that somewhere down the line they will find a way to actually treat the root cause of tinnitus and up until that moment that the government will allow your treatment to be funded through the NHS to make it accessible to people in need.” 

Our research team is working on several studies aiming to explore how sleep difficulties can change the tinnitus characteristics, and vice versa. It will aim to answer questions like, “When my quality of sleep changes, does this affect my tinnitus the next day?” and “What happens to my tinnitus while I experience different stages of sleep?”. The closer we get to answering these questions, the better treatment and advice we can offer to patients. To learn more about how to support funding this study click here. We are also in the process of launching two new studies to assess how cognitive flexibility, anger rumination, and perseverative thinking, relate to misophonia symptoms and their severity. Understanding the cognitive roots of misophonia may open the door to improved treatment strategies. To learn more about our misophonia projects click here.

In 2023, our researchers have contributed to several conferences around the world comprising the Interdisciplinary Seminar for Tinnitus and Hyperacusis in Belgium, the 10th Annual Misophonia convention in New Mexico, USA, the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Clubs Association of Slovenia, and many more!

It is also important to train the next generation of researchers and specialist clinicians. In 2023, we have delivered a workshop on CBT for tinnitus, hyperacusis and misophonia for audiologists, psychologists, and doctors in Norway. Our tour of international educational workshops for hearing healthcare and mental health professionals will continue in 2024 in São Paulo, Brazil, Birkbeck college of London and Stockholm, Sweden (Read more here). In addition, we have been supervising several BSc, MSc and PhD student research projects from around the world with the aim of assisting high quality research development in the fields of misophonia, tinnitus and hyperacusis.

Looking ahead we have planned several events for 2024 namely Patients and Doctors Webinar (free event on 7th February 2024, National Tinnitus Week), the 1st International Conference on Pharmacology & Gene Therapy for Tinnitus (28th June 2024), and our Sound Off art competition which is aimed to help with raising awareness about misophonia, tinnitus and hyperacusis in conjunction with the 7th International Conference on Hyperacusis and Misophonia in Warsaw, September 2024. You will hear more about these events in the next year!

Have a lovely Christmas and New Year!

Dr Hashir Aazh, Director