抑郁症的嗅觉功能缺陷：发现与观点

Olfactory Impairments in Major Depressive Disorder:findings and perspectives

抑郁症的受累脑区(包括眶额区皮层、前后扣带回皮层、杏仁核、海马、丘脑和嗅球等)与参与嗅觉信息处理的脑区多有重叠,嗅球切除动物模型亦强烈提示嗅觉功能缺陷与抑郁样行为之间的关系。嗅觉是了解中枢神经系统功能的窗口,同时嗅觉功能检测为具有相对客观性的非侵入性检查,因而可期被用于抑郁症的早期发现与症状及疗效的评价。然而,目前有关抑郁症嗅觉功能的研究还相对较少且结果常不一致。本文对近年来有关抑郁症患者嗅觉功能的研究结果进行了总结性回顾,并在此基础上对今后该领域的研究提出了观点、假设和建议。

Neuroimaging studies have revealed that brain regions including orbitofrontal cortex, anterior and posterior cingulate cortex, amygdala, hippocampus, and thalamus, are involved in depressive disorders and overlapping with those related to olfactory information processing. Additionally, bulbectomized animal model of depression showed a strong link between depression-like behavior and impaired olfactory function. Olfaction is a window for the insight into the brain mechanisms of information processing, meanwhile, modern methods for the assessment of olfactory function are relatively objective and non-invasive, thus the measures from these methods can be expected to be taken as biological markers of depression and further can be clinically useful for early detection and intervention, as well as the assessments of treatment outcomes. However, so far, this topic has not attracted much attention and the results from limited number of studies are often inconsistent. This review summarizes the relevant findings concerning the olfactory function of depressive disorders, and also provides perspectives and suggestions for futures studies.