ArticleGeneral hospital psychiatry
Olfactory reference syndrome: demographic and clinical features of imagined body odor.
Article in General hospital psychiatry. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers.
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Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed.
- Living with an imagined odor: first case report of olfactory reference syndrome in East Africa treated using a multimodal approach.Journal of medical case reports · 2026Article
- Genital malodor and olfactory reference syndrome: a resource for nonpsychiatrists.International journal of women's dermatology · 2025Article
- Clinical characteristics and treatment response of a possible self-contamination subtype of obsessive-compulsive disorder: a prospective investigation.BMC psychiatry · 2025Article
- Associations between olfactory reference disorder and social phobia - results of an internet-based study.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- Human skin gas profile of individuals with the people allergic to me phenomenon.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Olfactory Obsessions: A Study of Prevalence and Phenomenology in the Course of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.Journal of clinical medicine · 2023Article
- Olfactory Reference Syndrome: A Case Report and Screening Tool.Journal of clinical psychology in medical settings · 2021Article
- The use of 33 MHz ultra-high-frequency ultrasonography for the evaluation of sweat glands in the axilla with osmidrosis.PloS one · 2021Article
- The latent structure of olfactory reference disorder symptoms: A taxometric analysis.Journal of obsessive-compulsive and related disorders · 2020Article
- Diagnosis and phenotypic assessment of trimethylaminuria, and its treatment with riboflavin:Orphanet journal of rare diseases · 2019Article
- Relationships between pathologic subjective halitosis, olfactory reference syndrome, and social anxiety in young Japanese women.BMC psychology · 2017Article
- Sniffing out olfactory reference syndrome.The South African journal of psychiatry : SAJP : the journal of the Society of Psychiatrists of South Africa · 2017Article
- Psychosomatic problems in dentistry.BioPsychoSocial medicine · 2016Review
- Diagnosis of Human Axillary Osmidrosis by Genotyping of the Human ABCC11 Gene: Clinical Practice and Basic Scientific Evidence.BioMed research international · 2016Review
- Review
- Halitosis: a new definition and classification.British dental journal · 2014Article
- Understanding egorrhea from cultural-clinical psychology.Frontiers in psychology · 2013Article
- Article
- Olfactory Reference Syndrome (Halitophobia) With Oral Cenesthopathy Treated With Low-Dose Aripiprazole: A Case Report.Clinical neuropharmacologyArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveOlfactory reference syndrome (ORS) - preoccupation with a false belief that one emits a foul or offensive body odor - has been described around the world for more than a century. However, only a few small studies have systematically assessed ORS's clinical features.
methodTwenty patients with ORS were systematically assessed using semistructured measures.
resultsSubjects' mean age was 33.4±14.1; 60% were female. Preoccupation most often focused on the mouth (75%), armpits (60%) and genitals (35%). Bad breath (75%) and sweat (65%) were the most common odor descriptions. Currently, 85% of subjects had delusional ORS beliefs, 77% had referential thinking and 85% reported actually smelling the odor. Ninety-five percent of subjects reported performing one or more ORS-related repetitive behaviors (e.g., excessive showering). Forty percent had been housebound for at least 1 week because of ORS symptoms, 68% had a history of suicidal ideation, 32% had attempted suicide and 53% had been psychiatrically hospitalized. Forty-four percent of subjects had sought nonpsychiatric medical, surgical or dental treatment for the perceived odor, and one third had received such treatment, which was ineffective in all cases.
conclusionORS appears to be characterized by high morbidity and seeking of nonpsychiatric treatment.
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