Odor perception in patients with mood disorders.
BACKGROUND
Olfaction 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.


METHODS
Olfactory 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).


RESULTS
Depressive 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.


CONCLUSIONS
This study does not identify inter-individual differences in olfactory perception.


CONCLUSIONS
The 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.
Lombion-Pouthier
Sandrine
S
Laboratoire de Neurosciences, Place Leclerc, Université de Franche-Comté, 25030 Besançon Cedex, France.
Vandel
Pierre
P
Nezelof
Sylvie
S
Haffen
Emannuel
E
Millot
Jean-Louis
JL
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect / Q000502:physiology; D000368:Aged; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D000856:Anorexia Nervosa / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019964:Mood Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D000857:Olfaction Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D009833:Olfactory Pathways / Q000503:physiopathology; D012016:Reference Values; D012684:Sensory Thresholds / Q000502:physiology; D017603:Signal Detection, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology