COVID loss of smell, taste may have 'profound impact on quality of life'
"People’s sense of well-being declines. It can be really jarring and disconcerting,” Dr. Datta explained.
By IDAN ZONSHINEA nose-swab is taken from a driver at a drive-through coronavirus testing station in east Jerusalem, amid coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak April 2, 2020.(photo credit: AMMAR AWAD / REUTERS)
Scientists in the field of olfactory and epidemiological research are scrambling to find out whether the one of the most common and psychologically devastating symptoms of COVID-19 - the loss of taste and smell - could possibly be permanent, according to a report published in The New York Times on Saturday.According to the report, while most patients who lose their senses of smell and taste after falling ill with COVID-19 regain them after they recover, often within a matter of a few weeks, in a minority of patients the loss persists.As worldwide coronavirus cases top 85 million, the report features some experts who fear that the pandemic may leave huge numbers of people with a permanent loss of smell and taste.Dr. Sandeep Robert Datta, an associate professor of neurobiology at Harvard Medical School, told the NYT that “If you think worldwide about the number of people with COVID, even if only 10% have a more prolonged smell loss, we’re talking about potentially millions of people.”Datta explained that losing one's sense of smell - which is closely tied to the sense of taste - may also have a profound impact on mood and quality of life.“You think of it as an aesthetic bonus sense,” Dr. Datta said. “But when someone is denied their sense of smell, it changes the way they perceive the environment and their place in the environment. People’s sense of well-being declines. It can be really jarring and disconcerting.”In addition to the potential immediate loss of the senses of smell and taste, patients have also been reporting symptoms of drastic changes to their perceptions of flavors and to their overall appetite, leading to fears of nutritional deficits.According to the NYT report, some COVID-19 survivors are tormented by phantom odors that are unpleasant and often noxious, like the smells of burning plastic, ammonia or feces, a distortion called parosmia.Dr. Dolores Malaspina, a professor of psychiatry, neuroscience, genetics and genomics at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, told the NYT that a loss of smell is a risk factor for anxiety and depression, and that olfactory dysfunction often precedes social deficits in schizophrenia, and social withdrawal even in healthy individuals.A recent study of 153 patients in Germany found that "smell training” - sniffing essential oils or sachets with a variety of odors (such as lavender, eucalyptus, cinnamon and chocolate) several times a day in an effort to coax back the sense of smell, could be moderately helpful in those who had lower olfactory functioning and in those with parosmia.
However, the study's small sample size, short observation period and (as of yet) non-peer reviewed status mean that while it may seem promising, it is still too initial for scientists to tout it as such.In May, a study by international researchers, including one from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, found that along with the partial or complete loss of the senses of taste and smell, patients' sense of touch can also be diminished over the course of the disease, though it is not yet known whether this symptom could also be permanent.Last month, a research team in Barcelona found that in addition to the loss of senses, many coronavirus patients reportedly experienced severe nasal irritation and dryness in conjunction with the beginning of their sensory loss, which lasted for around 12 days.
