Drug reaction: A person may need to stop taking the drug that may be causing the phantom smell. Potential medications that may cause phantosmia include antidepressants and antibiotics.
Phantosmia may be caused by a head injury or upper respiratory infection. It can also be caused by aging, trauma, temporal lobe seizures, inflamed sinuses, brain tumors, certain medications and Parkinson's disease. Phantosmia can also result from COVID-19 infection.
Intranasal zinc products, decongestant nose sprays, and certain oral drugs, such as nifedipine and phenothiazines, are examples of drugs that may cause permanent loss of smell. Anosmia may also result from diseases of the nerve pathways that transmit smells to the brain.
Phantosmia is a qualitative olfactory disorder wherein an odorant is perceived in the absence of an identifiable stimulus. Although phantosmia is most often idiopathic, it may be associated with nasal mucosal abnormalities, migraines, seizures, and neurocognitive or mood disorders.
Side effect of anti-anxiety and antidepressant medications, especially when withdrawing. Many medications, including anti-anxiety and antidepressants, can cause phantom smells as a side effect,[12] especially when withdrawing.
People who take 5 or more prescription medications, however, have a 69% increased odds of reporting phantom odors (OR 1.69 (1.09, 2.63)).
Qualitative olfactory dysfunctions, such as parosmia and phantosmia, may be clinical conditions secondary to neurological diseases. The incidence of parosmia is underestimated, as well as its association with neurological diseases, due to poor self-reporting of patients and lack of objective methods for its measure.
Phantosmia is relatively uncommon. It makes up around 10 to 20 percent of disorders related to the sense of smell. In most cases, phantosmia is not a cause for concern and will go away on its own.
Smelling things that aren't there is called phantosmia. It can be unpleasant and affect how things taste. But it isn't usually serious and may go away by itself in a few weeks or months. See your GP if the strange smell doesn't go away in a few weeks.
Phantosmia, which is an olfactory hallucination, sometimes occurs with anxiety. It can cause you to smell something that isn't there, or rather, a neutral smell becomes unpleasant. Most often, this bizarre sensation is caused by antidepressants or withdrawal from them. However, sometimes it's associated with anxiety.
According to a 2018 review in the World Journal of Otorhinolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, studies and reviews show that more than 350 drugs can cause changes in taste, and more than 70 drugs can cause changes in smell. Many drugs cause both.
Adults with diagnosed, but controlled, high blood pressure reported phantom odors more frequently than those without high blood pressure. We observed a threefold greater odds of phantom odor perception among adults aged 60 years and older with diabetes, but only among those who use both insulin and oral medications.
Phantosmia has been clinically related to schizophrenia and mood disorders: these mental diseases and perception of phantom smells have been linked to abnormal levels of several neurotransmitters such as acetylcholine, dopamine, and norepinephrine (27).
a brain tumour in the frontal lobe could lead to loss of smell (as well as other symptoms, such as, difficulty with speaking, concentrating or learning new information)
To diagnose phantosmia, a doctor will first perform a physical exam of the person's head and neck. They may ask about any other symptoms and perform tests to check the individual's other senses. A doctor may order an endoscopy or rhinoscopy to look into the nasal cavity and check for issues that could cause phantosmia.
Your treatment team can include: Primary care doctor. Otolaryngologist, a doctor who specializes in ear, nose, and throat problems. Neurologist, a doctor who specializes in conditions related to brain and nervous system.
It is usually reported in 65–90% of PD patients [7,8], may often precede the onset of motor symptoms, and may manifest as hyposmia/anosmia, parosmia (distorted perception of an odor), and phantosmia (perception of an odor in the absence of a relevant odor source), also indicated as olfactory hallucinations (OHs) [9,10] ...
Answer: Generally sinus disease or infection causes a foul odor and not the smell of cigarettes. Often odors can linger on clothing, carpet, furniture, automobile seats, drapery etc. Some brain tumors can cause olfactory (smell) delusions or hallucinations and these can be manifest as almost any odor.
Phantosmia usually goes away on its own, though this can sometimes be gradual and occur over several years. When caused by an illness (e.g., sinusitis), it should go away when the illness resolves.
More than 10% (n = 112) of people who had lost consciousness from a head injury reported phantom odors compared with 5.7% (n = 422) of those without a history of head injury.
Several conditions may cause a bad smell in the nose, including sinusitis, tooth/ mouth infections, dry mouth, some medications, some foods/drinks, and olfactory damage. Typically, a bad smell in the nose is not life-threatening but can decrease the quality of life.
Prior accounts have suggested that the phantosmic sensations originate either in the peripheral olfactory nervous system or in central brain regions (Stevenson and Langdon 2012), such as the amygdala (Acharya et al. 1998; Chen et al. 2003) and the orbital frontal cortex (Arguedas et al. 2012).
02/5Smell hallucination
This can be an indicator of high cholesterol. This condition where an individual hallucinates a weird smell is called phantosmia or phantom odor perception.