Journal of Alzheimers Disease & Parkinsonism
Open Access

Review Article

Smell and Taste Dysfunction as Early Markers for Neurodegenerative and Neuropsychiatric Diseases

Tiffany Field^1*,²

¹University of Miami School of Medicine, USA

²Fielding Graduate University, USA

Corresponding Author:

Tiffany Fie
University of Miami School of Medicine
Tel: 305 975 5029
E-mail: tfield@med.miami.edu

Received date: February 12, 2015; Accepted date: March 18, 2015; Published date: April 25, 2015

Citation: Field T (2015) Smell and Taste Dysfunction as Early Markers for Neurodegenerative and Neuropsychiatric Diseases. J Alzheimers Dis Parkinsonism 5:186. doi:10.4172/2161-0460.1000186

Copyright: © 2015 Field T, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

During the last few decades a significant literature has evolved, suggesting that sensory dysfunction, particularly smell and taste dysfunction, can be early markers for neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s and neuropsychiatric diseases including ADHD and Schizophrenia, all diseases that involve dopaminergic pathology. Smell loss and taste dysfunction appear in clinical versus non-clinical groups, and in longitudinal studies these symptoms have been noted years earlier than motor signs in the first degree relatives of individuals who already have the diseases. This paper is a review of the recent literature on empirical studies and reviews that have documented the results of sensory screenings of several groups with neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric diseases and those first-degree relatives at risk for those diseases. Although early biomarkers could be useful in identifying those needing preventive intervention, the treatment literature is very limited.

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