Association Between Anxious Symptom Severity and Olfactory Impairment in Young Adults with Generalized Anxiety Disorder: A Case-Control Study

Xiacan Chen; Wanjun Guo; Liangming Yu; Dan Luo; Leling Xie; Jiajun Xu

doi:10.2147/NDT.S314857

Association Between Anxious Symptom Severity and Olfactory Impairment in Young Adults with Generalized Anxiety Disorder: A Case-Control Study

Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat. 2021 Sep 7:17:2877-2883. doi: 10.2147/NDT.S314857. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Xiacan Chen¹, Wanjun Guo², Liangming Yu², Dan Luo², Leling Xie², Jiajun Xu²

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Forensic Medicine, West China School of Basic Medical Sciences & Forensic Medicine, Sichuan University, Chengdu, People's Republic of China.
² Mental Health Centre, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, People's Republic of China.

Abstract

Objective: The findings of olfaction are inconsistent in anxiety disorders, and few studies have reported on the olfactory performance in generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Therefore, we aim to investigate the olfactory function of patients with GAD and the association between olfactory function and anxiety symptoms.

Methods: We conducted a case-control study by selecting 107 patients with GAD and 107 healthy controls matched for sex and age, to investigate olfaction deficits in GAD and the association between anxiety severity and olfaction. All patients were treatment-naïve prior to the inclusion. Anxiety severity and olfaction were assessed by the Hamilton anxiety rating scale (HAM-A) and the Sniffin' Sticks test (SST), respectively. Partial correlations were used to analyze the relationship between olfaction and anxiety severity. False discovery rate (FDR) correction was used in multi-correlation analyses.

Results: Compared with healthy controls, patients in the GAD group demonstrated odor threshold, discrimination and identification deficits. In the moderate/severe anxiety subgroup, discrimination score was significantly and inversely correlated with the somatic anxiety score (γ=-0.44, q = 0.03), and identification score was significantly and inversely correlated with the HAM-A total score (γ=-0.42, q= 0.04). The TDI score (the sum of threshold, discrimination and identification scores) was significantly and inversely correlated with the somatic (γ=-0.44, q = 0.04) and psychic (γ=-0.45, q = 0.04) anxiety scores in the moderate/severe anxiety subgroup.

Conclusion: This study demonstrated the olfactory impairment in patients with GAD and that poorer odor discrimination was correlated with greater severity of somatic anxiety.

Keywords: GAD; olfaction; symptom.

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the Key Research and Development Project of Science and Technology Department, Sichuan Province (Grant no. 2019YFS0218); the Technology Innovation Research & Development Project of Chengdu Science and Technology Bureau (Grant no. 2019-YF05-00240-SN); the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant no. 2020TQ0219); the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant no. 2021SCU12080).