Prevalence and correlates of parosmia and phantosmia among smell disorders

Pellegrino, R., Mainland, J. D., Kelly, C. E., Parker, J. K. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4121-5481 and Hummel, T. (2021) Prevalence and correlates of parosmia and phantosmia among smell disorders. Chemical Senses, 46. bjab046. ISSN 1464-3553 doi: 10.1093/chemse/bjab046

Abstract/Summary

Among those many individuals who suffer from a reduced odor sensitivity (hyposmia/anosmia) some individuals also experience disorders that lead to odor distortion, such as parosmia (i.e., distorted odor with a known source), or odor phantoms (i.e., odor sensation without an odor source). We surveyed a large population with at least one olfactory disorder (N = 2031) and found that odor distortions were common (46%), with respondents reporting either parosmia (19%), phantosmia (11%), or both (16%). In comparison to respondents with hyposmia or anosmia, respondents with parosmia were more likely to be female, young, and suffering from post-viral olfactory loss (p < 0.001), while respondents with phantosmia were more likely to be middle-aged (p < 0.01) and experiencing symptoms caused by head trauma (p < 0.01). In addition, parosmia, compared to phantosmia or anosmia/hyposmia, was most prevalent 3 months to a year after olfactory symptom onset (p < 0.001), which coincides with the timeline of physiological recovery. Finally, we observed that the frequency and duration of distortions negatively affects quality of life, with parosmia showing a higher range of severity than phantosmia (p < 0.001). Previous research often grouped these distortions together, but our results show that they have distinct patterns of demographics, medical history, and loss in quality of life.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/102256
Item Type	Article
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Life Sciences > School of Chemistry, Food and Pharmacy > Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences > Food Research Group
Publisher	Oxford University Press
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