Talk:Anosmia

Discussion

People with congenital anosmia DO NOT find life less appealing than those with a sense of smell. (anon)

• I removed this: " (makes) life less appealing. This often leads to depression." It sounds like that is an assumption. I've never had a sense of smell so I don't know what I am missing. "often leads to depression" sounds like guessing. But if you know of studies to prove any of that please add them. CDA 22:38, 30 August 2005 (UTC)

I never had a sense of smell either and I certainly don't feel depressed or saddened by this lack. It's surely an inconvenience at times - but at other times it's very useful. However, much like becoming blind I assume becoming anosmic may induce depression shortly after the event - but this is a general observation of loosing any previous ability in general. Gardar Rurak 08:57, 22 April 2006 (UTC)

It is a very dubious claim to suggest that life is "less appealing" to those with congenital anosmia. However a greater predisposition to depression is recorded, and it is most likely due to the aggregate neurological effects of missing sensory stimuli.

Hey there. Found this BBC article detailing rates of depression among those afflicted with anosmia, it also mentions the libido thing. No idea how to go about sourcing it, but I figured you guys might appreciate the ability to get rid of a few "needs source" brackets. Waylon.88.7.185.147 17:33, 27 December 2006 (UTC)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/6199605.stm

I've never been able to smell anything and I'm never depressed about it. However, I don't really cook because I can't tell if it's done/burning. Useight 02:10, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

Traumatic loss of smell (e.g., brain injury from blow to the head) may be associated with depression, but the loss of smell is possibly just a sign of the brain injury; depression is associated with brain injuries, and/or loss of abilities. I will look for some references to add. This is quite complicated I think, because the symptom label 'anosmia' does not tell about the cause and whether acquired or born with. Fremte 22:04, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

the article does state that certain events leading to depression, such as no longer being able to smell grass, are not applicable to cases of congenital anosmia. Re the case of libido, this is not to say that sexual ability (i.e. testosterone) disappears, but rather logically we must assume that sexual interest decreases. This would be due to smell cues leading to desire (pheromones) no longer being present, and in the act itself there would no longer be smell cues signalling the partner's arousal.

Tsop 03:21, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

French quotes

oh goodness. i removed the stuff at the bottom about "smell is important in human culture, witness these french phrases..." because it just is not accurate! first of all the verb is improperly conjugated (or spelled), it ought to be "sens", not sent. secondly and more important, "sentir" means "to smell" AND "to feel"! maybe you could make the argument that this means humans (or the french) equate aromas to feelings, but the connection would still be only about as definite as saying that english speakers (let alone humans in general) equate a rip (tear) with a bit of eye-duct fluid (tear). (roula- 21:04, 20 January 2006)

Hyperosmia

Is there a condition of hyperosmia?

• Yes. Hyperosmia is basically a better-than-normal sense of smell.

Diagnosis

The article states that acetylcysteine tests may be used for diagnosis. I followed the link, but couldn't find anything about anosmia. A Google search gives me a variety of copies of the Wikipedia article, and a couple of articles on acetylcysteine possibly causing anosmia. Thoughts? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.101.215.37 (talk) 03:19, 3 June 2011 (UTC)

Senses vs Abilities

• I changed "The common view of anosmia as trivial can make it more difficult for a patient to receive the same types of medical aid as someone who is blind, deaf or mute." to "someone who has lost other senses, such as hearing or sight." Becoming mute is not the same as losing a sense, it is losing an ability.

I have hyposmia. It's not so bad, except when I can't tell when my toast is burning. I fixed this, as obviously this article isn't about enjoying feet: "Congenial Anosmics often have a much more developed sense of taste than those who could smell at some point in their lives, and can enjoy foot just as much as someone who could smell."

I think it was okay; 'smell of foot' is a general smell that has the same characteristics (bar intensity) as several feet. It is an oddity, but this because we have a different grammar for refering to smells ('foot' is something like a metonym for 'the smell of feet) -it just needed to have specified that it was a word refering to smell. Tsop 03:34, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

Causes

Zinc deficiency - no data that confirms this. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kbrd (talk • contribs) 15:14, 17 April 2012 (UTC) Kbrd (talk) 15:16, 17 April 2012 (UTC)

Treatment

Why isn't there a section about treating anosmia? - Katami 01:57, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Can you even treat anosmia? What's a Question? 00:55, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

As far as I know, there is no treatment, but I have heard of something called Butterbur (or something like that) that can help. Useight 02:11, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

Some types of anosmia cannot be treated. For example, anosmia can result from loss of the olfactory bulbs at the base of the brain, as sometimes happens in closed head injuries. A treatment would require regrowing the lost part of the brain.69.17.48.38 14:59, 18 October 2007 (UTC)

Anosmia from allergies is often treatable. I just started prednisolone last week and after a day and a half, I could smell normally (I think it's normal). I was switched to Flixonase yesterday. I'll try to add some info later. 210.66.89.248 (talk) 10:38, 30 December 2010 (UTC)

Some causes of anosmia are certainly treatable. I know because for 3 years I received intermittent steroids which restored my olfaction for several weeks on each occasion. The risk associated with continuous steroids at that level precluded a permanent 'cure'.

Libido and impotence

The statement "Loss of olfaction may lead to the loss of libido, even to the point of impotency, which often preoccupies younger anosmic men." is not supported at all by the footnote link. It only says "As it goes with sex lives - if smell deteriorates completely or changes, so can a partner's attraction and the relationship." There is no mention of male, female or impotency. Mensch 05:19, 15 April 2007 (UTC)

Please pardon my ignorance, but could this be caused by an inability to detect ("smell" may not be the right word) pheremones? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:8003:e448:d401:8ce0:7e9b:113b:cdc (talk) 08:39, 3 September 2019 (UTC)

Dangerous body odours?

"...dangerous because it hinders the detection of gas leaks, fire, body odor...". The first two, sure. Body odor? Are we talking about being able to smell gangrene here? Hardly a body odor, and usually it's quite visually detectable that something is amiss long before that. BO might be annoying to others, but hardly dangerous - and it's quite easily remedied by simply taking care of personal hygiene in most cases, which at I know at least one person with no sense of smell who is perfectly capable of... --Osquar F 08:03, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

Anosmic individuals

That list is notably lacking in citations. Varlaam (talk) 15:05, 30 May 2012 (UTC)

Go to it man, go to it.

Could be argued to delete this list based purely on unsourced material, and also per WP:MEDMOS, medical pages on Wikipedia should not contain trivia, and so I deleted it. Anyone wishing to re-add this content please read the above guideline and also read WP:BURDEN - i.e. it is up to you to provide reliable sources if you want to re-add any of it. Lesion (talk) 10:53, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Further reading

Why are three out of four sources in the further reading by the same author? Is it AFB to think there is a COI here? The further reading section is supposed to be a summary of landmark papers of the topic, not one person's bibliography.

I also removed "fifth sense" per WP:ELNO. Lesion (talk) 17:16, 22 August 2013 (UTC)

small error:

The phrase "Since anosmia causes inflammatory changes in the nasal passage ways, it is treated by simply reducing the presence of inflammation"

would probably be better as: "Since anosmia IS CAUSED BY inflammatory changes in the nasal passage ways, it is treated by simply reducing the presence of inflammation"

Regards46.26.35.98 (talk) 22:35, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

Expanded the scope of the statement......

I expanded the scope of the statement to include the fact that (head) trauma is not the only cause of permanent anosmia.  Anosmia caused by factors other than head trauma can also be permanent.  Please see:

• https://books.google.com/books?id=nqQyBwAAQBAJ&pg=PT178

(toward the bottom of the page)

• https://books.google.com/books?id=5UCb9d3IexUC&pg=PT1772&lpg=PT1772

If you disagree with this edit, please feel free to discuss it here.
Richard27182 (talk) 07:07, 17 December 2015 (UTC)

Re-direction to this page

Smell disorders redirects to this page, and I don't think that's appropriate. Other smell disorders with WP pages include: parosmia, hyposmia, hyperosmia, phantosmia, dysosmia. I think it needs a page of its own, even if it's just a stub. (Ping Doc James: ) Hildabast (talk) 18:03, 27 October 2016 (UTC)

Redirected to Dysosmia of which the rest would be a subtype correct User:Hildabast? Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 00:06, 28 October 2016 (UTC)

Thanks Doc James! But I don't think anosmia is a subtype of dysosmia.Hildabast (talk) 12:16, 28 October 2016 (UTC)

Dysosmia simply means abnormal smell which no ability to smell would fall under IMO.

If we changes the same of the dysosmia article to "Disorders of smell" would that solve the issue? Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 20:49, 28 October 2016 (UTC)

Personal experience.

My sense of smell was very poor my entire 60 year life, because I suffer from chronic nasal polyps. A couple of years ago, however, I had radical nasal surgery to remove them and a few other things done. I then immediately had complete anosmia, which the surgeon told me would happen, and he also told me my sense of smell would come back.

Well, it came back all right. As it did so, I experienced a little phantosmia - I thought I could detect odours that were not that, and I could not identify them. They were neither pleasant nor unpleasant.

Shortly after this, I had a very aggressive form of cancer elsewhere, with surgery and then a very agressive chemo. So the chemo caused me to become totally anosmic again. Chemotherapy drugs do not appear on the list of causes.

I don't know about being "depressed" - the cancer and the chemo certainly did that. Eating has now become as much fun as filling the gas tank of my car. Nor has it diminished my libido.

My anosmia now really is total. I can take a huge sniff of say corrosive solvent (and no I dont do that very often). I can feel it burning my nostrils, but I cannot smell anything at all. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:8003:E448:D401:E09D:635D:9434:D337 (talk) 12:44, 2 September 2019 (UTC)

Update: Two years later, my sinuses are completely full of polyps. The CAT scan shows that the polyps are growing over the olfactory receptors. My surgeon is going to remove them. As preparation for this, he has put me on 50mg/day of Prednisone to reduce the polyps as much as he can before surgery. Much to my surprise, it appears that the Prednisone has worked, and I can now ever so faintly smell gasolene and powdered milk. Not much, but it's a huge step forward after two years of total anosmia. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:8003:E422:3C01:91FB:922A:89C7:1E5E (talk) 12:03, 29 November 2021 (UTC)

Update: Two years later again, so +4 years, and my anosmia is still total. Polyps and inflammation are all gone, but still no sense of smell at all. Worse, I have recently realized that my *memory* of smells has now gone. I can no longer "remember" what anything smells like. Still, at least I am alive, the immuno has worked. It seems a small price to pay for still being alive. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:8003:E490:7D01:20B8:7726:14A1:687 (talk) 10:50, 22 February 2023 (UTC)

"Loss of"

From the opening of the article:

"Anosmia, also known as smell blindness, is the loss of the ability to detect one or more smells."

Like some others, I've never had a sense of smell. Anosmia to me means "a state of not being able to smell". The opening paragraph suggests having the sense to start with is a pre-requisite to having anosmia. If that's what the word means, then what's the word for the congenital case?

Rather than just blindly (!) changing the opening sentence of a page that's been around for this long, thought I'd give a few days leave here for discussion. -- drrngrvy ^tlk @ 12:56, 27 February 2021 (UTC)

Mention of study which used turmeric

The study mentioned was done with two people. I do not think that the way it is mentioned or worded really conveys this. I’m not even sure if it’s something worth mentioning, if there has not been a single proper study, but rather a tiny experiment on two individuals. Names Chester….Winchester (talk) 23:41, 14 November 2021 (UTC)

Well caught. Belatedly, I just straight up removed it. It was added by an IP editor in Special:Diff/1054232873, who seems unaware that biomedical info, such as potential treatments, must be supported by WP:MEDRS, which a case study is not (as outlined under the MEDRS subsection WP:MEDASSESS). Rotideypoc41352 (talk · contribs) 19:50, 21 February 2024 (UTC)