A brief smell identification test discriminates between deficit and non-deficit schizophrenia.
Evidence is accumulating that smell identification deficits (SID) and social dysfunction in schizophrenia may share a common pathophysiology. While most schizophrenia studies utilize the lengthy 40-item University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT) to assess smell identification ability, a brief 12-item smell identification test (B-SIT) has recently been constructed as a culturally neutral substitute for the UPSIT. By selecting the 12 items of the UPSIT from which the B-SIT was originally derived, we constructed a proxy for the B-SIT and compared the performance of 83 patients with schizophrenia to 69 normal subjects. We examined select properties of the B-SIT proxy in relation to the UPSIT to determine its efficacy for use in psychiatric populations. We considered the sensitivity of the B-SIT proxy and evaluated a cutoff score for identifying deficit syndrome schizophrenia (DS). The UPSIT and B-SIT proxy were significantly related in the patients (n=83, r=0.85, P=0.01) and in comparison subjects (n=69, r=0.83, P=0.01), and both measures similarly distinguished DS from non-deficit syndrome (non-DS) patients. The results of this study support the utility of the B-SIT for schizophrenia research and highlight the robustness of the relationship between SID and social dysfunction in schizophrenia.
Goudsmit
Nora
N
New York State Psychiatric Institute and Columbia University Departments of Psychiatry and the College of Physicians and Surgeons, 1051 Riverside Drive, New York, NY 10032, USA. goudsmi@pi.cpmc.columbia.edu
Coleman
Eliza
E
Seckinger
Regine Anna
RA
Wolitzky
Rachel
R
Stanford
Arielle D
AD
Corcoran
Cheryl
C
Goetz
Raymond R
RR
Malaspina
Dolores
D
D000328:Adult; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D000857:Olfaction Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012903:Smell; D012920:Social Behavior Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires