Hyposmia is a common complication of a new coronavirus infection (COVID-19). According to the literature, between 35 and 65% of patients report these subjective perceptions. Olfactory training is the main method of the osmosis recovery, but it’s not always effective.
OBJECTIVE
To increase the efficiency of patients’ osmesis recovery after COVID-19 by means of a comprehensive medical and psychological rehabilitation program.
PATIENTS AND METHODS
A randomized comparative study of the efficacy of the olfactory and psychological training complex in patients with hyposmia after COVID-19 was done. The study involved 70 patients aged between 18 and 80 with hyposmia and mild COVID-19 history. Subjects were divided into two groups. In the 1st group (36 patients) olfactory training with essential oils (daily, 6 times a day, 10 breaths of each aroma with breaks of 30 s, for 14 days) was held. In addition, aroma rings soaked with essential oils were used, which were fixed daily on the patient’s nose for 20 minutes before bedtime for 14 days. In the 2nd group (34 patients) the same olfactory trainings with essential oils, as well as psychological tests to recover olfactory memory were performed. Psychological trainings consisted in answering to questions related to osmesis and olfactory memory (once in 3 days, during 14 days).
RESULTS
Performance of the olfactory trainings led to a 1.2-fold improvement of patients’ osmesis. At the same time, implementation of the olfactory and psychological training complex increased the patients’ perception of the aroma according to all studied criteria: the strength of aroma — on 10.7%, lasting power — on 11.4% and variety — on 21.1%. The number of wrong decisions in repeated tests for olfactory memory decreased by a factor of 3.5 in the course of treatment.
CONCLUSION
Thus, improvement of olfactory memory, which is recovered with special psychological tests, plays an important role in osmesis recovery after COVID-19, along with olfactory training.
