title: Taste identification used as a potential discriminative test among depression and Alzheimer׳s disease in elderly: A pilot study.
abstract: Major Depression and Alzheimer׳s disease (AD) are two diseases in the elderly characterized by an overlap of early symptoms including memory and emotional disorders. The identification of specific markers would facilitate their diagnosis. The aim of this study was to identify such markers by investigating gustatory function in depressed and AD patients. We included 20 patients with unipolar major depressive episodes (MDE), 20 patients with mild to moderate AD and 24 healthy individuals. We investigated the cognitive profile (depression, global cognitive efficiency and social/physical anhedonia) and gustatory function (ability to identify four basic tastes and to judge their intensity and hedonic value) in all participants. We found that AD patients performed worse than healthy participants in the taste identification test (for the analysis of all tastants together); however, this was not the case for depressed patients. We found no significant differences among the three groups in their ability to evaluate the intensity and hedonic value of the four tastes. Overall, our findings suggest that a taste identification test may be useful to distinguish AD and healthy controls but further investigation is required to conclude whether such a test can differentiate AD and depressed patients.
authors.affiliation: Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) U930, équipe 4 "Troubles affectifs", Université François-Rabelais de Tours, 37200 Tours, France.
authors.forename: Marine
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Naudin
authors.affiliation: Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) U930, équipe 4 "Troubles affectifs", Université François-Rabelais de Tours, 37200 Tours, France; Centre Mémoire de Ressources et de Recherche Région Centre et médecine interne gériatrique, Hôpital Bretonneau, Centre Hospitalier Régional Universitaire de Tours, 37044 Tours, France.
authors.forename: Karl
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mondon
authors.affiliation: Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) U930, équipe 4 "Troubles affectifs", Université François-Rabelais de Tours, 37200 Tours, France; Pôle de Psychiatrie, Clinique Psychiatrique Universitaire, Centre Hospitalier Régional Universitaire de Tours, 37044 Tours, France.
authors.forename: Wissam
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: El-Hage
authors.affiliation: Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) U930, équipe 4 "Troubles affectifs", Université François-Rabelais de Tours, 37200 Tours, France.
authors.forename: Elise
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Perriot
authors.affiliation: Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) U930, équipe 4 "Troubles affectifs", Université François-Rabelais de Tours, 37200 Tours, France.
authors.forename: Mohamed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Boudjarane
authors.affiliation: Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) U930, équipe 4 "Troubles affectifs", Université François-Rabelais de Tours, 37200 Tours, France; Centre Mémoire de Ressources et de Recherche Région Centre et médecine interne gériatrique, Hôpital Bretonneau, Centre Hospitalier Régional Universitaire de Tours, 37044 Tours, France.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Desmidt
authors.affiliation: Centre Mémoire de Ressources et de Recherche Région Centre et médecine interne gériatrique, Hôpital Bretonneau, Centre Hospitalier Régional Universitaire de Tours, 37044 Tours, France.
authors.forename: Adrien
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lorette
authors.affiliation: Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) U930, équipe 4 "Troubles affectifs", Université François-Rabelais de Tours, 37200 Tours, France.
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Belzung
authors.affiliation: Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) U930, équipe 4 "Troubles affectifs", Université François-Rabelais de Tours, 37200 Tours, France; Centre Mémoire de Ressources et de Recherche Région Centre et médecine interne gériatrique, Hôpital Bretonneau, Centre Hospitalier Régional Universitaire de Tours, 37044 Tours, France.
authors.forename: Caroline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hommet
authors.affiliation: Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) U930, équipe 4 "Troubles affectifs", Université François-Rabelais de Tours, 37200 Tours, France. Electronic address: atanasova@univ-tours.fr.
authors.forename: Boriana
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Atanasova
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D059445:Anhedonia; D015415:Biomarkers; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D016002:Discriminant Analysis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D008875:Middle Aged; D010865:Pilot Projects; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology; D013649:Taste / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers
keywords: Alzheimer׳s disease; Depression; Gustation; Hedonicity; Identification capacities; Intensity