Emotionally Exhausted Women More Sensitive to Sounds, Study Says - East Idaho News

Emotionally Exhausted Women More Sensitive to Sounds, Study Says

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Getty 031812 WorriedMomBills?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1359928204595Goodshoot/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — A new study indicates that emotionally exhausted women are much more sensitive to sounds when they are stressed, Health Day reports.

Swedish researchers found that even a normal conversation can be painful for some of these women, and the study suggests that doctors may need to consider patients’ stress and exhaustion levels when treating hearing problems, Health Day says.

The researchers exposed 208 women and 140 men between 23 and 71 years of age who had low, medium or high levels of emotional exhaustion to five minutes of physical, mental and social stress. Although none of the groups had different sensitivity to sound before being exposed to stress, the study showed that women with high levels of emotional exhaustion were much more sensitive to sounds after being exposed to stress than other women who were not exhausted. The study’s authors noted that although similar changes could be seen in men, the differences were not statistically significant, according to Health Day.

The study was recently published online in PLoS ONE.

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