The secret to relieving depression could be right under your nose. According to a new study, scents are more effective than words at triggering positive memories, which could help people with depression break free from negative thought patterns.

This discovery was made by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh in the United States, and was published in The JAMA network is open.

Study methodology

The researchers exposed 32 people aged 18 to 55 with major depressive disorder to different odors in jars.

After smelling each scent, the participant was asked to recall a specific memory. The same thing was done using a different strategy – instead of presenting the scent, a “cue word” was presented. For example, instead of the volunteer feeling the orange essential oil, he just read the word “orange.”

Finally, the researchers noted that memory recall was stronger after scents than after words, especially with 12 words: Vicks VapoRub, coffee, vanilla extract, lavender soap, coconut oil, cumin powder, honey bulbs, red wine, shoe wax, vanilla extract, ketchup and orange essential oil.

There is evidence that patients with depression have difficulty remembering past moments, explains Kimberly Young, a neuroscientist and professor of psychiatry at the university who led the new study.

Furthermore, some studies in healthy people have shown how smells create more “vivid” memories.

“It was surprising to me that no one had thought to study memory recovery in depressed individuals using odor cues before,” Young said in a statement. “If we improve memory, we can improve problem solving, emotional regulation, and other functional problems that depressed individuals often suffer from.”

olfactory bulb nerve connections

Young explained that activating a part of the brain called the amygdala, which controls the “fight or flight” response, helps with memory retrieval because the amygdala directs attention to specific events. Scents likely stimulate the amygdala through neural connections in the olfactory bulb, a mass of nerve tissue associated with the sense of smell.

People with depression report difficulty recalling certain autobiographical memories, she said. And because Young knew that smell could trigger happy memories in people who weren't depressed, she decided to study smell and memory retrieval in people with depression.

Improving memory in people with depression could help them relieve their symptoms more quickly, Young said.

“If we improve memory, we can improve problem solving, emotional regulation and other functional problems that people with depression often have,” Young said in the statement.

The researcher plans to use a brain scanner in the future to prove her theory that smells interact with the amygdala in depressed people.