Epilepsy
| Olfactory hallucination | Smelling odours that are not present; can be experienced in epilepsy, depression or psychosis. |
Treatment at a glance
- Focal: carbamazepine or levetiracetam
- Generalised tonic–clonic: valproate (not in women who could become pregnant) or levetiracetam
- Absence: ethosuximide or valproate
What our notes say
- | Olfactory hallucination | Smelling odours that are not present; can be experienced in epilepsy, depression or psychosis. | (Dictionary of Psychopathology)
- Keep the alternatives open: a mood disorder with psychotic features (mania or depression), substance-induced psychosis (cannabis, khat, alcohol), and a medical or neurological cause (HIV, epilepsy, head injury, thyroid, delirium). (Classification of Mental Disorders)
- | Seen in | Schizophrenia, mania, psychotic depression, delirium | Schizophrenia, delirium, substance use, epilepsy | Delirium, anxiety, fatigue; can be normal | (Introduction to Psychopathology)
- The same symptom occurs in many disorders (hallucinations in schizophrenia, delirium, substance use, epilepsy). (Introduction to Psychopathology)
- | Neurological | Stroke (especially right hemisphere), traumatic brain injury, frontal or temporal tumours, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy (temporal lobe), Huntington's, Wilson's disease, neurosyphilis, HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder | (Bipolar and Related Disorders)
- Optimises chronic conditions (diabetes, hypertension, epilepsy, HIV) before pregnancy. (Reproductive Health 1 End of Trimester CAT: 40 MCQs and 4 short answers)