Mood Impairment in Patients with Olfactory Loss Predicts a More Pronounced Recovery of Olfactory Function

Here, we refer to our publication "Symptoms of depression change with olfactory function" [Sci Rep. 2022 Apr 5;12(1):5656].

Depression decreases with olfactory improvement, but the question remains open of whether patients who indicate more suffering regarding mood impairment exhibit a different pattern of recovery from olfactory loss compared to those who suffer less.

In the course of an additional investigation of our previously published dataset, we established groups of participants (N = 171) with low (≤8 points on a depression [ADSL] scale; 47%; n = 45) and high (≥14 points on ADSL scale; 53%; n = 53) mood impairment.

We found that the group that reported more sufferance on a depression [ADSL] scale improved more in change of olfactory function, and, more importantly, odor discrimination change over a period of an average of 11 months.

Patients, who suffered more, as indicated by higher scores on ADSL scale, may have been more willing to commit to the study protocol, and thus their improvement was more notable.