Jan 11, 2008 5:42 pm US/Pacific
Study: Too Much Perfume Could Signal Depression
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
If you're one those ladies who likes to layer on the perfume, a new study says it could be a sign of depression.
We smell it all too often: that certain someone in the office, in the elevator, at family gatherings who just always seems to have gone crazy with perfume.
Now a study out of Israel says it may be a sign of a serious problem.
"Our scientific findings suggest that women who are depressed are also losing their sense of smell, and may overcompensate by using more perfume," said Professor Yehuda Shoenfeld of Tel Aviv University.
It's news to most perfume enthusiasts.
"I've never heard that before. It seems kind of weird, but there may be something to it," said New Yorker Jodi Elias.
So CBS station WCBS-TV in New York's Cindy Hsu went to the Karen Horney Clinic, where doctors treat depression, and talked to Executive Director Dr. Henry Paul to gauge his reaction.
"My reaction when I first read it is that I actually laughed because I couldn't imagine anyone had done such a study to do with perfume and depressed women," he said.
Paul said people with depression can start to lose their sense of smell, but, "to conclude that women who wear excessive perfume are necessarily depressed would be a leap of faith at the minimum."
Still, Paul said the study could hold some truths to it.
"Women who are depressed might in fact put on more perfume unconsciously or subconsciously because they want to feel better, and they want to appear better because inside they don't feel very good," he said.
Kendra Jacobs told WCBS she wears lots of perfume, but disagrees with the study.
"I'm not depressed, I'm always happy," she said.
Manhattan resident Victoria Liggett may have fingered the real reason many people pour on the perfume.
"I think what happens is you get desensitized with your scent when you continue to wear perfume constantly and then you have to wear more and more of it before you can smell it," she said.
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