parosmia

There are numerous diseases that parosmia is associated with.

Although there are instances of parosmia affecting patients for years at a time, this is certainly not the majority of cases.

"Sniffin' Sticks" are another method that can be used to properly diagnose parosmia.

Fortunately for patients afflicted with parosmia, symptoms usually decrease with time.

This would also lead to parosmia.

These subsets are called anosmia, parosmia, and phantosmia respectively.

Phantosmia is very similar to parosmia.

"Signs and symptoms, etiologies and clinical course of parosmia + in a series of 84 patients"

The authors do comment, however, that cases of parosmia can predict regeneration of olfactory senses.

In another case study cited in the same paper, one woman had parosmia in one nostril but not the other.

Their difference is that parosmia is triggered by other odors; phantosmia is seemingly random.

As with anosmia, some cases of parosmia seemed to be odor specific, whereas other parosmias were more general and several smells were misinterpreted.

Phantosmia is different from parosmia, in which a smell is actually present, but perceived differently from its actual smell.

Exposure to harmful solvents has also been linked to parosmia and more specifically damaging ORNs.

Parosmia and phantosmia are more qualitative disabilities that are denoted by the impromptu introduction of odors without the proper stimulus.

Parkinson's disease patients can also experience phantosmia, as well as parosmia, however their appearance is more uncommon than the muscle tremors the patients experience.

Medical examinations and MRIs did not reveal any abnormalities; however the parosmia in this case was degenerative and only got worse with time.

One method used to establish parosmia is the University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test, or UPSIT.

It is hypothesized that URTIs can result in parosmia because of damage to olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs).

One example of parosmia involved using a peppermint "Sniffin' Stick" by placing it in front of a patient's nose, then the patient reporting a foul or rotten smell.

In the case study cited above, Frasnelli et al. examined five patients that endured parosmia or phantosmia, most as a result of upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs).

There have been experiments done to treat parosmia with L-Dopa, but besides that there are no current treatments other than inducing anosmia or hyposmia to the point where the odors are negligible.

Temporal lobe epilepsy has also led to cases of parosmia, but these were only temporary; the onset of parosmia was a seizure and it typically lasted a week or two after.

While most olfactory hallucinations are caused by a misinterpretation of a physical stimulus, such as in the case of parosmia, phantosmia is the perception of a smell in the absence of any physical odors.

These different techniques can also help deduce whether a specific case of parosmia can be attributed to just one stimulating odor or if there is a group of stimulating odors that will generate the displaced smell.