Olfactory deficits, cognition and negative symptoms in early onset psychosis.
BACKGROUND
Smell identification deficits (SID) are common in adult schizophrenia, where they are associated with negative symptoms and lower intelligence. However, smell identification has not been examined in adolescents with early onset psychosis, wherein diagnosis is often obscure, and there are few prognostic predictors.


METHODS
We examined smell identification, diagnosis, neuropsychological performance and symptoms in 26 well characterized adolescents with early onset psychosis, age 11-17 years.


RESULTS
SID existed in the sample and were more common in patients with schizophrenia and psychotic depression than in patients with psychosis NOS and bipolar disorder. As in adults, SID were significantly associated with greater negative symptoms and lower verbal IQ. However, the associations of verbal IQ (and other verbal tasks) to smell identification in this pediatric sample were explained by the relation of both of these types of variables to negative symptoms.


CONCLUSIONS
SID existed across this sample of youths with psychotic disorder, and were specifically related to typical characteristics of schizophrenia, such as negative symptoms and lower intelligence, but not to features of bipolar disorder, such as grandiosity. SID is a characteristic of early onset psychosis that may be useful for prognostic purposes.
Corcoran
Cheryl
C
New York State Psychiatric Institute, 1051 Riverside Drive, New York, NY 10032, USA. cc788@columbia.edu
Whitaker
Agnes
A
Coleman
Eliza
E
Fried
Jane
J
Feldman
Judith
J
Goudsmit
Nora
N
Malaspina
Dolores
D
D000293:Adolescent; D000339:Affect; D002648:Child; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D000857:Olfaction Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000453:epidemiology; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D014888:Wechsler Scales