Olfactory Obsessions: A Study of Prevalence and Phenomenology in the Course of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Abstract

Olfactory obsessions (OOs) are rarely described in the medical literature. The features of OOs appear consistent with characteristics of a typical obsession, but since they do not involve the realm of thought, it is questionable to term them obsessions per se. Olfactory Reference Syndrome (ORS) presents OOs inconsistently and is a distinctive diagnostic category related to OCD. Therefore, the primary objectives of our study were not only to assess the prevalence of OOs in OCD patients, but also to demonstrate their phenomenological consistency with other OCD symptoms. The study group consisted of 75 patients already diagnosed and treated for OCD. Hence, a comparison was made between OCD patients with and without OOs in terms of: symptom severity, level of insight and comorbidities. Olfactory obsessions (OOs) were found in 21.33% (n = 16). OOs induced compulsive behavior in more than 93% of subjects. The presence of OOs did not significantly differentiate the studied groups in terms of OCD severity (p = 0.876), level of insight (p = 0.680), depression (p = 0.746), mania (p = 0.525) and OCDP traits (p = 0.624). However, a comparison of the two groups showed that OOs patients presented higher levels of hostility (p = 0.036), cognitive impulsivity (p = 0.039), magic-type obsession (75% vs. 35.59%), and contamination obsession (87.50% vs. 67.80%). Conclusions: OOs frequently occur in the course of OCD, and their phenomenology is typical of this disorder. OOs are not a symptom of thought content disorders and are sensory in nature, which is not included in the definition of obsession. The presence of OOs in OCD provokes hostility and cognitive impulsivity. It can be assumed that the Olfactory Obsessions Questionnaire accurately identifies olfactory obsessions.