Dr. Veale and Dr. Jastreboff

[Guest guest]

I found a paper on PubMed written by a doctor re. a patient who

wanted to be deaf. I wrote him, suggesting the person had 4S syndrome

instead of borderline personality disorder!!

His reply

thank you, I had not considered this although I don't think it fits.

I am attaching a copy of the paper for you

If anybody wants a copy of the paper, I will send it as an

attachment. Please email me at lindasalin@...

this is the abstract

A case is described of a patient who has a compelling and

persistent desire to become deaf. She often kept cotton

wool moistened with oil in her ears and was learning sign

language. Living without sound appeared to be a severe

form of avoidance behavior from hyperacusis and misophonia.

She had a borderline personality disorder that

was associated with a poor sense of self. Her desire to

be deaf may be one aspect of gaining an identity for

herself and to compensate for feeling like an alien and

gaining acceptance in the Deaf community. Will a compelling

desire for deafness ever become a recognized mental

disorder one day for which hearing patients may be offered

elective deafness after a period of assessment and

living like a deaf person? Those working in the field of

deafness should be aware that individuals may occasionally

be seeking elective deafness or self-inflicting deafness

to obtain a hearing aid.

I also emailed Dr. Jastreboff in Atlanta asking if he had experience

in 4S, his reply was disconcerting:

It is just a subset of misophonia and should be treated with

protocols for misophonia. Sound generators are not crucial or are

not used for it. See my web page about TRT.

regards,

pjj

(PS TRT is tinnitus retraining)