Migraine, Osmophobia, and Anxiety

Abstract

Osmophobia in migraine patients is associated with significant anxiety symptoms, length of headache history, and phonophobia.

Olfactory symptoms reported by migraineurs with and without auras

“…More recently, Sj€ ostrand et al 10 found that osmophobia was present in 81.7% of 60 women they studied; only 32.7% of these were diagnosed as having auras. Moreover, some migraine patient's characteristics seem to be directly associated with osmophobia such as anxiety, 16,24,25 more year of headache history, phonophobia, 24 and aura, which is inversely related to osmophobia. 25 Other olfactory symptoms have been linked to migraine patients.…”

Osmophobia and Odour-triggered Headaches – Review of the Literature and Main Research Centres

“…There were 13 comparative studies between migraine and other primary headaches or controls without headache, 2,3,5,8,13,14,[17][18][19][20]22,28,31 and 10 that evaluated only migraine patients. 4,6,7,11,15,16,24,26,29,30 As for odour-triggered headache, there were six studies detected, two comparative studies between migraine and other primary headaches, 1,3 two with migraine patients, 7,24 and two case reports. 9,12 However, there were six other studies where pathophysiological aspects of the association between odours and migraine were studied.…”

“…In addition, the five authors who have published most of these studies were born in these three countries. [1][2][3][4][5]7,8,14,15,[18][19][20] We do not have a scientific argument for this fact, but curiously these three countries were pioneers in the study of migraine.…”

“…Generally, we observed a severe intolerance to odours, pleasant or unpleasant, during headache attacks. 2,[4][5][6][7][8]10,11,[13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] However, a limited number of studies showed that odours may trigger headache attacks in some patients, particularly in migraineurs 1,3,6,7,9,24 and occasionally in cluster headache patients. 12,18 This intolerance to odours is known as osmophobia, and according to two studies that investigated osmophobia in secondary headaches, it occurred during headache attacks only in the primary headaches.…”

“…2 Many researchers have confirmed that osmophobia is a symptom associated with migraine. 2,[4][5][6][7][8]10,11,[13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] Despite such research, osmophobia is still not part of the diagnostic criteria for migraine. 34 In recent years, these studies were carried out in several countries.…”