COULD AN IMPAIRED SENSE OF SMELL EXPLAIN LOW SOCIAL DRIVE IN SCHIZOPHRENIA?
New findings suggest that a faulty sense of smell may provide the key to understanding the origins of social deficits. Very little is known about the causes of the social problems in schizophrenia, a disease that affects 1% of the population. Though most people are familiar with the psychotic symptoms of schizophrenia such as delusional thinking and hallucinations, it is the social deficit aspect of schizophrenia that is often the most debilitating problem. Poor social drive robs patients of their motivation and is one of the factors that prevents them from holding a job, studying or caring for themselves when the more overt symptoms are under control. In the June 9th issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry, Dr. Dolores Malaspina, a clinical research psychiatrist at the New York State Psychiatric Institute and Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University, and a colleague report on findings from a study examining whether the smell identification deficits and low social drive in sc
