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Impaired chemosensory function and its relationship with clinical severity, emotional states, and cognition in
Zhihong Lyu1, Peifeng Yang2, Jiyang Pan3
1Department of Psychiatry, Sleep Medicine Center, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510515, China; Chemical Senses and Mental Health Laboratory, Department of Psychology, School of Public Health, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510515, China.
Background:
Chemosensory function have dual effects on the sleep-wake regulation. Chemosensory dysfunction was found in various types of sleep disorders and significantly related to the severity of disease. Insomnia disorder is the most frequent sleep disorder seen in the clinic, while little is known about the characteristics of chemosensory function of this disease. The purpose of this study was to characterize the chemosensory function and its relationship with clinical severity, emotional states, and cognition in patients with insomnia disorder.
Methods:
Thirty-eight patients with insomnia disorder and 40 age-, gender-, and educational level-matched healthy controls participated in this study. All participants were subjected to the Sniffin' Sticks, the Taste Strips, a battery of questionnaires to evaluate olfactory function, gustatory function, sleep, emotional states, and cognition. In addition, all patients with insomnia disorder were examined with polysomnography.
Results:
Patients with insomnia disorder had significantly poorer sensitivity to odour (p < 0.001), bitter taste (p = 0.022) and sweet taste (p = 0.027) than healthy controls did. In patients with insomnia disorder, after controlling for age, odour threshold was significantly associated with depressive and anxiety symptoms. Odour identification was significantly associated with excessive daytime sleepiness and percentage of rapid eye movement sleep. Gustatory function was significantly correlated with sleep indicators.
Conclusions:
Our results showed the chemosensory function of patients with insomnia disorder is significantly impaired. Chemosensory dysfunction may be an important indicator of insomnia disorder and may be related to the depressive and anxiety symptoms of the disease.
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