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Alcohol and Alcoholism Advance Access originally published online on September 29, 2004
Alcohol and Alcoholism 2004 39(6):514-519; doi:10.1093/alcalc/agh100
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Alcohol & Alcoholism Vol. 39, No. 6 © Medical Council on Alcohol 2004; all rights reserved

OLFACTORY FUNCTIONING IN PATIENTS WITH ALCOHOL DEPENDENCE: IMPAIRMENTS IN ODOR JUDGEMENTS

CLAUDIA I. RUPP*, W. WOLFGANG FLEISCHHACKER, ARMAND HAUSMANN, DOLORES MAIR, HARTMANN HINTERHUBER and MARTIN KURZ

Department of Psychiatry, Medical University Innsbruck, Austria

* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed at: Medical University Innsbruck, Department of Psychiatry, Anichstrasse 35, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria. Tel.: 43 (0) 512 548353; Fax: 43 (0) 512 548353 40; E-mail: claudia.rupp{at}uibk.ac.at

(Received 28 May 2004; first review notified 27 July 2004; in revised form 18 August 2004; accepted 6 September 2004)

Aims: Prior studies indicate that alcohol-dependent patients have impaired olfactory sensitivity, odor quality discrimination and identification ability. However, olfactory functioning with regard to the immediate, perception driven odor associations is unknown. Therefore, this study assessed olfactory judgements in nonamnesic and nondemented patients with alcohol dependence. Methods: Thirty alcohol-dependent patients and 30 healthy control subjects, well matched for gender, age and smoking status, and screened for olfactory sensitivity, were asked to rate intensity, familiarity, edibility and pleasantness of 16 odors using visual rating scales. Results: Compared with controls, patients showed lower scores in odor familiarity and impaired edibility judgements. These impairments were observed bilaterally, were present independently of age, gender, general mental abilities and length of abstinence, and not attributable to smoking or impaired olfactory sensitivity. No differences between groups were found in odor intensity and pleasantness judgements. Conclusion: These results extend prior findings of alcohol-related olfactory deficits, indicating impairments in olfactory processes of odor familiarity and edibility in alcohol-dependent patients. Although the basis of these deficits is still unknown, our finding of a distinct pattern of olfactory functional, with spacing of perception of pleasantness and familiarity, suggests that there is no generalised olfactory impairment but that, neural olfactory networks may be affected differently.


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