Odor perception in patients with mood disorders

BackgroundsOlfaction has obvious correlates with emotional processes but little is known about the several aspects of olfaction in psychiatric disorders characterized by mood disturbance. This research aims at pointing out the specificities of olfactory perception in patients in order to identify the specific cerebral impairments involved in these disorders.MethodsOlfactory sensitivity, detection, identification, self-evaluation of intensity and pleasantness have been recorded in a control group of healthy subjects (N = 58) and in three sample populations admitted to a Psychiatry Department: depressive patients (N = 49), anorectic patients (N = 17), and patients suffering from addiction to alcohol or drugs (N = 21).ResultsDepressive patients have a poor sensitivity, poor detection abilities but over-evaluate the pleasantness of odors. Anorectic patients have a high sensitivity, over-evaluate the intensities of the odors but under-evaluate their pleasantness. Alcoholic/drug addicted patients showed impairments in identification.LimitationThis study does not identify inter-individual differences in olfactory perception.ConclusionThe psychiatric diseases, here at hand although every one of them may be characterized by depressive components, show diverging impairments in olfactory perception. When variations in sensitivity are usually attributed to peripheral cues, impairments in emotional and cognitive aspects of olfaction are typically related to specific brain structures and processes which could be particularly involved in these diseases.