TurdBerglar
05-25-2010, 11:11 PM
Imagine worrying that you smelled bad – that you had horrid halitosis or unbearable body odor – only to find that no amount of mouthwash, deodorant or aggressive showering could get rid of the stench.
That’s the reality for sufferers of a strange and agonizing condition called olfactory reference syndrome, in which people believe they emit foul or offensive odors – when they really don’t.
This week, scientists at the American Psychiatric Association’s annual meeting are hearing that the problem is serious enough to warrant its own entry in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the bible for assessing mental trouble.
“This disorder causes a lot of pain, shame and self-consciousness among its victims,” said Dr. Katharine A. Phillips, a psychiatrist with Rhode Island Hospital and Brown University who studies ORS.
It’s difficult to estimate the prevalence of the disorder, which is probably less than obsessive compulsive disorder, which affects about 2.3 percent of adults in the U.S., or some 3.3 million people.
“ORS is very under-recognized, but I would say it’s more common than we know,” Phillips said When I mention it to clinicians, they say, ‘Oh, I have a patient like that.’”
Phillips conducted a close study of 20 ORS patients and chronicled the toll the disorder takes on their lives. About 60 percent of the victims are women and most started worrying about their smell as teenagers, usually about age 15.
The sufferers became preoccupied with bodily odors, with 75 percent worried about their breath, 60 percent worried about their armpits and 35 percent worried about their genitals. Most are convinced that other people – at work, out in public – are aware of and disgusted by their scents.
On average, victims spent between three and eight hours a day occupied with the perceived smells, with 80 percent sniffing themselves, 68 percent excessively showering and 50 percent changing clothes multiple times. Sufferers trying to quell the scents turned to perfume (90 percent), gum (60 percent) and deodorant or mints (55 percent each), to no avail.
Eighty-five percent of the ORS sufferers reported actually smelling the bad odors, an olfactory hallucination. About 40 percent of victims had been housebound for a week because of the problem. More than two-thirds had suicidal thoughts and nearly a third had attempted suicide.
With awareness and intervention, ORS can be treated. Drugs used to curb obsessive-compulsive disorder and body dysmorphic disorder, two related problems, are often useful, Phillips said. So is therapy that helps patients halt the thoughts and actions that make the obsession worse.
First, though, it has to be better researched – and better recognized, Phillips said.
Meanwhile, Phillips confirmed that there’s still no syndrome for the opposite problem: People who actually smell terrible and don’t do anything about it.
http://bodyodd.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2010/05/24/2327388.aspx
i mean seriously. what the fuck?
this has to be a white people thing. like allergies.
ever hear of a black person complaining about allergies? no you have not!
That’s the reality for sufferers of a strange and agonizing condition called olfactory reference syndrome, in which people believe they emit foul or offensive odors – when they really don’t.
This week, scientists at the American Psychiatric Association’s annual meeting are hearing that the problem is serious enough to warrant its own entry in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the bible for assessing mental trouble.
“This disorder causes a lot of pain, shame and self-consciousness among its victims,” said Dr. Katharine A. Phillips, a psychiatrist with Rhode Island Hospital and Brown University who studies ORS.
It’s difficult to estimate the prevalence of the disorder, which is probably less than obsessive compulsive disorder, which affects about 2.3 percent of adults in the U.S., or some 3.3 million people.
“ORS is very under-recognized, but I would say it’s more common than we know,” Phillips said When I mention it to clinicians, they say, ‘Oh, I have a patient like that.’”
Phillips conducted a close study of 20 ORS patients and chronicled the toll the disorder takes on their lives. About 60 percent of the victims are women and most started worrying about their smell as teenagers, usually about age 15.
The sufferers became preoccupied with bodily odors, with 75 percent worried about their breath, 60 percent worried about their armpits and 35 percent worried about their genitals. Most are convinced that other people – at work, out in public – are aware of and disgusted by their scents.
On average, victims spent between three and eight hours a day occupied with the perceived smells, with 80 percent sniffing themselves, 68 percent excessively showering and 50 percent changing clothes multiple times. Sufferers trying to quell the scents turned to perfume (90 percent), gum (60 percent) and deodorant or mints (55 percent each), to no avail.
Eighty-five percent of the ORS sufferers reported actually smelling the bad odors, an olfactory hallucination. About 40 percent of victims had been housebound for a week because of the problem. More than two-thirds had suicidal thoughts and nearly a third had attempted suicide.
With awareness and intervention, ORS can be treated. Drugs used to curb obsessive-compulsive disorder and body dysmorphic disorder, two related problems, are often useful, Phillips said. So is therapy that helps patients halt the thoughts and actions that make the obsession worse.
First, though, it has to be better researched – and better recognized, Phillips said.
Meanwhile, Phillips confirmed that there’s still no syndrome for the opposite problem: People who actually smell terrible and don’t do anything about it.
http://bodyodd.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2010/05/24/2327388.aspx
i mean seriously. what the fuck?
this has to be a white people thing. like allergies.
ever hear of a black person complaining about allergies? no you have not!