Researchers from Johns Hopkins Medicine found a link between a decreased sense of smell and a heightened risk of late-life depression in a study that followed over 2,000 older adults for eight years. While not proving causation, the findings suggest a diminished sense of smell could indicate overall health and well-being concerns.
The study used data gathered from 2,125 participants in a federal government study known as the Health, Aging, and Body Composition Study . This cohort was composed of a group of healthy older adults ages 70–73 at the start of the eight-year study period in 1997–98. Participants showed no difficulties in walking 0.25 miles, climbing 10 steps, or performing normal activities at the start of the study, and were assessed in person annually and by phone every six months.
Researchers also identified three depressive symptoms “trajectories” in the study group: stable low, stable moderate, and stable high depressive symptoms. A poorer sense of smell was associated with an increased chance of a participant falling into the moderate or high depressive symptoms groups, meaning that the worse a person’s sense of smell, the higher their depressive symptoms.
Smell is processed in the brain’s olfactory bulb, which is believed to interact closely with the amygdala, hippocampus, and other brain structures that regulate and enable memory, decision-making, and emotional responses.
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