More than smell - COVID-19 is associated with severe impairment of smell, taste, and chemesthesis

Valentina Parma, Kathrin Ohla, Maria G. Veldhuizen, Masha Y Niv, Christine E Kelly, Alyssa J. Bakke, Keiland W. Cooper, Cédric Bouysset, Nicola Pirastu, Michele Dibattista, Rishemjit Kaur, Marco Tullio Liuzza, Marta Y. Pepino, Veronika Schöpf, Veronica Pereda-Loth, Shannon B. Olsson, Richard C. Gerkin, Paloma Rohlfs Domínguez, Javier Albayay, Michael C. FarruggiaSurabhi Bhutani, Alexander W. Fjaeldstad, Ritesh Kumar, Anna Menini, Moustafa Bensafi, Mari Sandell, Iordanis Konstantinidis, Antonella Di Pizio, Federica Genovese, Lina Öztürk, Thierry Thomas-Danguin, Johannes Frasnelli, Sanne Boesveldt, Özlem Saatci, Luis R. Saraiva, Cailu Lin, Jérôme Golebiowski, Liang-Dar Hwang, Mehmet Hakan Ozdener, Maria Dolors Guàrdia, Christophe Laudamiel, Marina Ritchie, Jan Havlícek, Denis Pierron, Eugeni Roura, Marta Navarro, Alissa A. Nolden, Juyun Lim, Carl M. Philpott, Jane K. Parker, GCCR Group Author

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Abstract

Recent anecdotal and scientific reports have provided evidence of a link between COVID-19 and chemosensory impairments, such as anosmia. However, these reports have downplayed or failed to distinguish potential effects on taste, ignored chemesthesis, and generally lacked quantitative measurements. Here, we report the development, implementation, and initial results of a multilingual, international questionnaire to assess self-reported quantity and quality of perception in 3 distinct chemosensory modalities (smell, taste, and chemesthesis) before and during COVID-19. In the first 11 days after questionnaire launch, 4039 participants (2913 women, 1118 men, and 8 others, aged 19-79) reported a COVID-19 diagnosis either via laboratory tests or clinical assessment. Importantly, smell, taste, and chemesthetic function were each significantly reduced compared to their status before the disease. Difference scores (maximum possible change ±100) revealed a mean reduction of smell (-79.7 ± 28.7, mean ± standard deviation), taste (-69.0 ± 32.6), and chemesthetic (-37.3 ± 36.2) function during COVID-19. Qualitative changes in olfactory ability (parosmia and phantosmia) were relatively rare and correlated with smell loss. Importantly, perceived nasal obstruction did not account for smell loss. Furthermore, chemosensory impairments were similar between participants in the laboratory test and clinical assessment groups. These results show that COVID-19-associated chemosensory impairment is not limited to smell but also affects taste and chemesthesis. The multimodal impact of COVID-19 and the lack of perceived nasal obstruction suggest that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus strain 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection may disrupt sensory-neural mechanisms.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)609–622
Number of pages14
JournalChemical Senses
Volume45
Issue number7
Early online date20 Jun 2020
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sep 2020

Keywords

  • Head and neck surgery
  • Olfaction
  • Somatosensation
  • Corrigendum to: More than smell-COVID-19 is associated with severe impairment of smell, taste, and chemesthesis (Chemical Senses (2020) DOI: 10.1093/chemse/bjaa041)

    Parma, V., Ohla, K., Veldhuizen, M. G., Niv, M. Y., Kelly, C. E., Bakke, A. J., Cooper, K. W., Bouysset, C., Pirastu, N., Dibattista, M., Kaur, R., Liuzza, M. T., Pepino, M. Y., Schöpf, V., Pereda-Loth, V., Olsson, S. B., Gerkin, R. C., Rohlfs Domínguez, P., Albayay, J., Farruggia, M. C., & 102 othersBhutani, S., Fjaeldstad, A. W., Kumar, R., Menini, A., Bensafi, M., Sandell, M., Konstantinidis, I., Di Pizio, A., Genovese, F., Öztürk, L., Thomas-Danguin, T., Frasnelli, J., Boesveldt, S., Saatci, Ö., Saraiva, L. R., Lin, C., Golebiowski, J., Hwang, L. D., Ozdener, M. H., Guàrdia, M. D., Laudamiel, C., Ritchie, M., Havlícek, J., Pierron, D., Roura, E., Navarro, M., Nolden, A. A., Lim, J., Whitcroft, K. L., Colquitt, L. R., Ferdenzi, C., Brindha, E. V., Altundag, A., Macchi, A., Nunez-Parra, A., Patel, Z. M., Fiorucci, S., Philpott, C. M., Smith, B. C., Lundström, J. N., Mucignat, C., Parker, J. K., Van Den Brink, M., Schmuker, M., Fischmeister, F. P. S., Heinbockel, T., Shields, V. D. C., Faraji, F., Santamaría, E., Fredborg, W. E. A., Morini, G., Olofsson, J. K., Jalessi, M., Karni, N., D'Errico, A., Alizadeh, R., Pellegrino, R., Meyer, P., Huart, C., Chen, B., Soler, G. M., Alwashahi, M. K., Welge-Lüssen, A., Freiherr, J., De Groot, J. H. B., Klein, H., Okamoto, M., Singh, P. B., Hsieh, J. W., Abdulrahman, O., Dalton, P., Yan, C. H., Voznessenskaya, V. V., Chen, J., Sell, E. A., Walsh-Messinger, J., Archer, N. S., Koyama, S., Deary, V., Roberts, S. C., Yanlk, H., Albayrak, S., Nováková, L. M., Croijmans, I., Mazal, P. P., Moein, S. T., Margulis, E., Mignot, C., Mariño, S., Georgiev, D., Kaushik, P. K., Malnic, B., Wang, H., Seyed-Allaei, S., Yoluk, N., Razzaghi-Asl, S., Justice, J. M., Restrepo, D., Reed, D. R., Hummel, T., Munger, S. D. & Hayes, J. E., 2021, In: Chemical Senses. 46, bjab050.

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    Open Access

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