Is the odour identification deficit in schizophrenia influenced by odour hedonics?

Introduction. While smell identification deficits have been well documented in schizophrenia, less work has examined identification accuracy for pleasant and unpleasant odours. The current investigation examined odour identification performance for pleasant and unpleasant odours in a sample of inpatients with schizophrenia and nonpsychiatric community controls. Method. The Brief Smell Identification Test was used to investigate accuracy in the identification of pleasant and unpleasant odours in 23 schizophrenia inpatients and 21 nonpsychiatric controls. Results. Results revealed that schizophrenia patients showed reduced accuracy on pleasant odours, but intact performance for unpleasant odours. Conclusions. Results provide preliminary support for a specific deficit in identifying pleasant odours in patients with schizophrenia. Future studies separating odours by valence categories are warranted.