Neurological Disorders

Bluetooth Hyperosmia: Chemosensory Variant of Delusional Somatic Symptom Disorder: A Case Report

Abstract

Shweta Kalita, Nikita Mehdiratta* and Alan R. Hirsch

Objective: Correlation of Bluetooth transmission with subjective hyperosmia.
Background: Subjective hyperosmia, as a manifestation of belief of exposure to Bluetooth transmission, with testing demonstrating the absence of true hyperosmia, has not heretofore been described.
Case presentation: This 53-year-old right-handed single woman presented with a 10-year history of increased sensitivity to the aroma and enhanced perception of smells upon exposure to Wi-Fi electromagnetic radiation. She noted an intensity-duration effect: With higher intensity and duration of Wi-Fi exposure, her sense of smell would escalate and persist: After a few hours of exposure, her smell would jump to 190% of normal and last for two weeks.
Result: Abnormalities in the neurological examination: Reflexes: 0 in both lower extremities. Chemosensory Testing: Alcohol Sniff Test: 8 (hyposmia). Gustation: Waterless Empirical Taste Test: Brothy: 4/8 (hypogeusia).
Discussion: Nidus for such hyperosmic delusions may be a primary olfactory system disorder, with induction of ephaptic transmissions, causing intermittent phantosmia or otherwise misperceived odor, misattributed to the ambient environment. The assignment of the source of the hyperosmia to Bluetooth is consistent with the zeitgeist of mistrust and paranoia of higher technology. This may be a form of expectation effect due to visual evidence (high tower wires); suggestion combined with subcultural group dynamics with belief in harm of such electromagnetic/Bluetooth waves, with distorted information recall and misattribution. Suchgroup dynamics and shared misperceptions may fuel a delusion, as in the Mandela effect. Perchance, this case represents not having delusional hyperosmia due to a functional psychiatric disorder but instead having a neuroanatomic basis. Those with subjective hyperosmia and hypersensitivity to aromas have demonstrated hypertrophied gray matter volume in the posterior sub-region of the right hippocampus, left precuneus, left superior frontal gyrus, and right hypothalamus. In those with subjective hyperosmia, a neurological investigation is warranted.