Higher levels of anxiety linked with everyday common odor awareness

Symptoms of anxiety seem to be associated with higher levels of everyday odor awareness. This corroborates the importance of olfactory functions in anxiety, according to the latest research published in the Journal of Affective Disorders.

Diminished olfactory functioning has been reported in depression, whereas evidence in anxiety disorders is still controversial. Olfactory meta-cognitive abilities (i.e., olfactory awareness, imagery and reactivity, and the importance of odors) are essential in shaping olfaction. Few studies examined these meta-cognitive abilities in relation to depressive, anxiety, and social anxiety symptoms and none of them considered the awareness of social odors.

This pre-registered study conducted by ElisaDal Bò et. al examined the relationship between olfactory meta-cognitive abilities and symptoms of depression, general anxiety, and social anxiety.

Self-report measures of symptoms of depression, general anxiety, and social anxiety, along with self-report olfactory meta-cognitive scales, were collected using an online survey of 429 individuals.

The study included 76.9% of women, aged 18 to 45 years recruited through social media. The age cut-off was 45 because evidence shows that olfactory perceptions start to decline at that time of life, Cinzia Cecchetto, Postdoctoral researcher at the Department of General Psychology at University of Padova noted.

Participants completed psychological questionnaires, including the Beck Depression Inventory-II, the Beck Anxiety Inventory, and the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale.

Linear regression analyses revealed that olfactory awareness and importance of common odors were significantly directly predicted by symptoms of general anxiety, while affective importance to odors was negatively predicted by symptoms of depression.

Regarding social odors, higher symptoms of depression and lower symptoms of social anxiety predicted increased awareness.

"General anxiety was associated with higher levels of common odor awareness. Social anxiety and depression predicted social odor awareness," the authors concluded.

Limitations of the study include higher prevalence of women and narrow age range of the participants. Depressive and anxiety symptoms were assessed only with self-report questionnaires.