Good news for people struggling with sensory problems after a bout of COVID-19. Although mild cases of the disease often impair the ability to taste and smell, and the problem can drag on for months, a new study from Italy shows that most people return to their senses, as it were, within 3 years.
“In the vast majority of cases, the loss of the sense of smell is not irreversible,” said Paolo Boscolo-Rizzo, MD, a professor of medicine, surgery, and health sciences at the University of Trieste, and a co-author of the study, published as a research letter today in JAMA Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery.
Boscolo-Rizzo and his colleagues analyzed data from 88 adults with mild COVID-19, which was defined as having no lower respiratory disease and blood oxygen saturation of 94% or greater. Another group of 88 adults who never contracted the virus but sometimes had difficulties with smell and taste were also studied. In both groups, the average age was 49 years, all participants were White, and 58% were women.
The researchers tested participants’ sense of smell with sticks that contained different odors, and checked their sense of taste with strips that had different tastes. Over time, fewer people had difficulty distinguishing odors. Three years after developing COVID-19 only 12 people had impaired smell, compared to 36 at year 1 and 24 people at year 2. And at the 3-year mark, all participants had at least a partial ability to smell.
The story was similar with sense of taste, with 10 of 88 people reporting impairments 3 years later. By then, people with COVID-19 were no more likely to have trouble with smell or taste than people who did not get the virus.
Emerging Treatments, Psychological Concerns
“We’re seeing fewer people with this problem, but there are still people suffering from it,” said Fernando Carnavali, MD, an internal medicine physician and a site director for the Center for Post-COVID Care at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City.
“It really has a significant psychological impact,” Carnavali said.
He recalled a patient crying in his office because her inability to smell made it impossible for her to cook. Carnavali recommended clinicians refer patients facing protracted loss of smell or taste to mental health professionals for support.
Treatments are emerging for COVID-19 smell loss. One approach is to inject platelet-rich plasma into a patient’s nasal cavities to help neurons related to smell repair themselves.
