Therapeutic Potential of Psychedelics for Treating Anosmia: An Investigation of Online Accounts
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs March 1, 2025 Alexsandra Kovacevich, Ian Dorney, Lukas Bobak et al. 1 citation
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, smell loss (olfactory dysfunction) has become more common, but effective treatments are scarce. Anecdotal reports suggest that serotonergic psychedelics like LSD and psilocybin might help. Analyzing 125 online posts from people with self-reported smell loss, 108 (86.4%) reported improvements in their sense of smell after using psychedelics. Of those, 55 (50.1%) first noticed improvement during the psychedelic experience, and 42 (38.8%) said the improvement lasted at least one day. No statistical link was found between dose and how long the benefit lasted for either psilocybin or LSD. These findings indicate that further research is needed to explore whether these substances could become a clinical treatment for smell loss.