Multisensory olfactory training: a new treatment for post-covid-19 olfactory loss
Fri-P2-066
Presented by: Gözde Filiz
According to the quantitative studies, 45-60% of people suffer from olactory loss after being diagnosed with COVID-19. Olfactory training is the most effective methods used for the treatment of olfactory loss following viral infection of the upper respiratory tract. It consists of sniffing odors twice a day for 12 weeks.
Our aim is to improve the current olfactory training protocol. We hypothesize that providing odors in a multi-sensory context enhances the effects of olfactory training thus leading to more successful recovery in patients.
We recruited 45 patients (33 women, 12 men, aged Mean = 42.8) with olfactory dysfunction following COVID-19. We tested 36 patients (26 women, 10 men, aged Mean = 42.5) in follow-up. Participants were divided into two groups, namely (I) an olfactory training group and (II) multi-sensory training. Whereas group I (n=20) followed a classical olfactory training paradigm with odors of strawberry, lemon, coffee, cheese; we prepared equivalent multi-sensory stimuli for group II (n=16). We dissolved the odorants in the water, together with a corresponding gustatory stimulus (strawberry-sugar, lemon-citric acid, coffee-sucrose octaacetate, cheese-salt). Group II put a droplet of the solution on their tongue, while looking at a cardboard on which we color printed an image of the stimulus.
We evaluated olfactory function before and after the training with UPSIT, the Questionnaire of Olfactory Dysfunction (QOD) and rating scales in the 36 participants who completed the protocol. For all variables, both interventions revealed a significant effect of training, but we did not observe any significant difference between groups.
In conclusion, both the classical olfactory training and the novel multi-sensory training protocol showed significant effects on subjective and objctive olfactory function in olfactory dysfunction following COVID-19. However, multi-sensory training does not seem to provide any advantage over the classical approach.
Our aim is to improve the current olfactory training protocol. We hypothesize that providing odors in a multi-sensory context enhances the effects of olfactory training thus leading to more successful recovery in patients.
We recruited 45 patients (33 women, 12 men, aged Mean = 42.8) with olfactory dysfunction following COVID-19. We tested 36 patients (26 women, 10 men, aged Mean = 42.5) in follow-up. Participants were divided into two groups, namely (I) an olfactory training group and (II) multi-sensory training. Whereas group I (n=20) followed a classical olfactory training paradigm with odors of strawberry, lemon, coffee, cheese; we prepared equivalent multi-sensory stimuli for group II (n=16). We dissolved the odorants in the water, together with a corresponding gustatory stimulus (strawberry-sugar, lemon-citric acid, coffee-sucrose octaacetate, cheese-salt). Group II put a droplet of the solution on their tongue, while looking at a cardboard on which we color printed an image of the stimulus.
We evaluated olfactory function before and after the training with UPSIT, the Questionnaire of Olfactory Dysfunction (QOD) and rating scales in the 36 participants who completed the protocol. For all variables, both interventions revealed a significant effect of training, but we did not observe any significant difference between groups.
In conclusion, both the classical olfactory training and the novel multi-sensory training protocol showed significant effects on subjective and objctive olfactory function in olfactory dysfunction following COVID-19. However, multi-sensory training does not seem to provide any advantage over the classical approach.