[Taste in healthy subjects. Influence of alcohol and tobacco consumption]

To define the factors which may affect gustatory function, 42 healthy subjects, without any apparent taste disorder were randomly selected and investigated by electro-gustometry and chemical gustometry. A deterioration in taste discrimination was noted in drinkers in comparison with non-drinkers, both on electro-gustometry, mean threshold (SEM: 88.0 +/- 26.5 versus 47.4 +/- 7.3 microA; p less than 0.05), and also on chemical gustometry (15.1 +/- 2.1 versus 17.4 +/- 0.7; p = 0.05) and also in smokers compared with non smokers (mean of electrical thresholds SEM 104.2 +/- 22.8 versus 38.3 +/- 5.2 microA; p less than 0.01, mean of chemical scores SEM 14.3 +/- 1.1 versus 17.9 +/- 0.9; p less than 0.05). Multivariate analysis demonstrated the influence of the two factors alcohol and tobacco on taste, evaluated by electrogustometry (R2 = 0.36) or chemical gustometry (R2 = 0.28). These results suggest that alcohol and tobacco are liable to influence gustatory function in healthy subjects thereby suggesting that this influence should be taken into account using a corrective factor.