This is reassuring news: a French study carried out on nearly a hundred patients suffering from anosmia reveals that the sense of smell returns after a few months in most people infected with Covid-19.
- Anosmia is one of the symptoms of covid-19
- A large majority of patients regain their sense of smell on average after 4 months
Posted in Jama Network Open, this study was carried out on 67 women and 37 men in Strasbourg over a period of one year. The patients had lost their sense of smell about seven days after being infected with Covid-19.
Anxious to determine after how long virus-induced anosmia was dissipating in these patients, so the doctors who conducted the research followed up for an entire year.
The latter found that the participants had regained their sense of smell after an average of four months, or 84.3% of the patients were “objectively recovered” after 4 months and that “96.1 objectively recovered in 12 months”. .
Very encouraging results according to doctors
Either a very encouraging prognosis says Marion Renaud, head of clinic in the ENT department of the University Hospital of Strasbourg who led the study.
“The loss of smell most often affects young subjects and the prognosis for recovery is better in young people. This is a message that encourages patients“, explains the doctor to Agence France Presse. “Before a year, we cannot say, even if the vast majority of people recover their sense of smell in the first months“, she adds.
The study also shows that some participants tended to evoke a “partial recovery” while “psychophysical tests” conducted on them made it possible to conclude “a complete recovery” of the sense of smell.
Anosmia one of the most common symptoms of Covid-19. It is estimated that between 60% and 80% of infected people are affected, at least temporarily, by the loss of smell.
As the president of the association Anosmie.org Jean-Michel Maillard explained, to Why Doctor, the psychological effects of this disorder remain underestimated and unknown to the general public. “No one has ever explained to us the consequences of the loss of smell, and above all no one has explained to us what the sense of smell is for. The French only discovered their sense of smell in March 2020!“.
