Patient perspectives highlight urgent need for research on smell and taste disorders

Jun 10 2024Monell Chemical Senses Center Researchers and patient advocates from the Monell Chemical Senses Center, Smell and Taste Association of North America , and Thomas Jefferson University came together during the COVID-19 pandemic to incorporate patient voices in efforts to prioritize research areas focused on improving care for people with smell and taste disorders.

Overall their findings underscore the importance of conducting more large-scale, randomized clinical trials that include older participants. They also identified a need to parse results among anosmia, hyposmia, and parosmia to better understand the mechanisms underlying each diagnosis. "The pandemic and emergence of long COVID uncovered our lack of knowledge of disorders of smell and taste," said first author Claire Murphy, PhD, Professor of Psychology at San Diego State University and Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego. "The overwhelming response of nearly 6,000 people with smell loss and their family members is indicative of how many people are craving for more information and to be heard.

Related StoriesThe efficacy of nasal steroids and smell training was also influenced by the type of diagnosis patients received: People with complete loss of smell rated the training less effective than those with a partial loss , and those with a distorted sense of smell rated nasal steroids less effective than those with hyposmia. Interestingly, people who were unsure of their diagnosis rated smell training as being less effective than those who were diagnosed with a partial loss of smell.

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