Olfactory training is a novel intervention that has to treat olfactory dysfunction. This study attempted to investigate the effect of olfactory training in patients with traumatic anosmia.
Patients with a clear history of anosmia after experiencing a head injury and whose PEA odor detection thresholds were — 1 after steroid and zinc treatment were included. The patients were randomly divided into two groups, with patients in one group given a PEA bottle and those in another group given a bottle of mineral oil for 3-month olfactory training. All the patients were followed up with a PEA threshold test and the traditional Chinese version of the UPSIT-TC. Researchers performed magnetic resonance imaging to measure the volume of the olfactory bulbs. Any patient whose PEA threshold result was below —1.01 or whose UPSIT-TC score increased four or more points to have shown improvement in their olfactory function.
Forty-two patients received PEA olfactory training, whereas 39 received olfactory training with mineral oil. The improvement of PEA thresholds functions in 10 patients within the PEA group and two patients in the mineral oil group. The frequency of progress of the point within the PEA group was significantly higher than that of the mineral oil group. Neither olfactory bulb volume nor UPSIT-TC score was significantly different between the two groups.
The study concluded that olfactory training with PEA could improve PEA odor threshold levels in patients with traumatic anosmia.
Reference: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.2500/ajra.2017.31.4466
