Familiar scents unlock memories in people with depression. Could 'smell therapy' help patients?
People with depression have trouble recalling specific memories. Specific scents may help unlock those memories, and could help improve mood, a new study finds.
Study after study has shown that people with depression have trouble recalling specific memories.
They might hear the word "party," for instance, and think, "I don’t get invited to parties often." By contrast, someone without depression could hear the word "party" and immediately recall a childhood birthday or recent celebration at a friend’s house.
“It’s not that depressed patients don’t have memories — it’s that they’re having trouble accessing them," said Kymberly Young, an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh.
Young may have found a key: A study published Tuesday in JAMA Network Open from her and her team suggests that familiar scents could help unlock those memories.
In the study, people with depression recalled more specific memories when they were exposed to familiar scents — such as ground coffee or tobacco — than when they heard words that corresponded to those smells, such as "coffee" or "cigarette."
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