Olfaction: An Important Assessment for Military Veterans

ABSTRACT

Keywords post-traumatic stress disorder, men and women Veterans, smells, triggers, odors, autobiographical-memory, olfactory, Proust phenomenon, military sexual trauma, traumatic brain injury, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, migraines, coping strategies, neurologic - nervous system, psychosocial and behavioral, assessment "For some inexplicable reason the sense of smell does not hold the high position it deserves among its sisters. The amygdala and hippocampus interaction also contributes emotional stimulation and relationship (conditional fear, anxiety, attention) to the odor-evoked memories, producing people, place, and event reminders. Reduced smell recognition, tolerance, and differentiation have been noted in women ages 45-60 with fibromyalgia, with imaging studies documenting smaller olfactory bulb volume (Blanco et al., 2018). During the COVID-19 pandemic, when patients complained of olfactory and gustatory loss with nasal-limited congestion, health providers were encouraged to suspect viral infection affecting the nasal passage neurons (Holbrook & Meyers, 2020;Moein et al., 2020;Xydakis et al., 2020).