Passing The Smell Test

Anxiety Insights reports that the inability to identify odors may be an indication of severe PTSD.

A world first study of Vietnam veterans’ sense of smell has revealed that an inability to identify smells indicates extreme symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
Researchers from the University of Melbourne and Austin Health conducting smell tests on 31 male war veterans with PTSD, recruited from Austin Health’s Veterans Psychiatry Unit.
“The worse their ability to be able to name a smell, in a smell test of over 40 ‘scratch and sniff’ odors, the harder it is to manage their emotions,” said John Dileo of the University’s School of Behavioral Science, who conducted the study.
Dileo says that the difficulty Vietnam veterans suffering PTSD have in putting the name to a smell may be indicative of weakness in brain pathways related to emotional processing. He says the same areas in the frontal region of the brain that are involved in identifying smells are also involved in regulating emotion.

Of course a sample size of 31 is not very definitive. It is about the smallest sample size where Gaussian statistics apply. The results are interesting and definitely warrant a larger study.
There is a connection between the amygdala, smell, and memory.
Here is something I wrote a while back on the connection between the amygdala, PTSD, and fear memories. PTSD and the Endocannabinoid System. Here is one about PTSD Pot Alcohol & Substance Abuse.
We are really closing in on PTSD. I think a time will come when we realize the utter stupidity of making war on the self medicating.
Cross Posted at Power and Control


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3 responses to “Passing The Smell Test”

  1. Eric Scheie Avatar

    You’re absolutely right about this issue. It makes about as much sense to criminalize drugs as it would to criminalize obesity.

  2. mrsizer Avatar

    Eric, just wait. Left-wing cognitive dissonance will reach a fever pitch when “sensitivity” collides with “costing health-care dollars”.

  3. Eric Scheie Avatar

    But what if they collude instead?