What's That Smell?
 

I'm experiencing something that isn't discussed much if at all in this forum, and I'd appreciate any feedback you might have.

I almost constantly smell an unpleasant smell that, according to the people around me, isn't real. It's hard to describe - a combination of rotting fish and burning plastic is about as close as I can come. It sometimes fades away, but then returns. According to what I have read, it's called "phantosmia", and is not really characteristic of PD.

I've been having classical PD symptoms for about 3 years (isn't hindsight wonderful :-), but I was actually "officially" diagnosed about 7 months ago. I'm also having problems with anosmia (sense of smell is disappearing). I took the smell test (the one that I think was prototyped by the University of Pennsylvania), and scored poorly.

Loss of sense of smell is common in PD, but I don't find any significant information in the literature about phantosmia. Does anyone else experience this? Does it eventually go away?

Just another PD thing
 

Hi,

I have read several people in a young onset PD forum who have experienced olfactory hallucinations. Turns out this is yet another aspect of PD...there are some case studies reported but not a lot out there; I'm sure this research will grow and most likely we'll see a range of olfactory dysfunction as a biomarker.

Hope this helps! - Laura

http://archneur.ama-assn.org/cgi/con...ract/65/9/1237

Check out a Dr. Donald Leopold. He's pretty open to contact and he's dedicated himself to the topic of phantosmia.

I've been plagued for about 2 years with a phantom cigarette smoke smell. I've googled this and can only come up with one explanation, which is attributed to sinus infection. Interesting phenom, since PD'ers usually lose sense of smell!?