People who have developed a good sense of smell could experience much more happiness and pleasure, which would trigger a discussion that olfactory disorder might correlate with the pathogenesis of major depressive disorder (MDD). Similar experiments conducted on rats have confirmed that nerve damage of olfactory pathway can induce a series of depression-like changes, including behavior, neurobiochemistry, and neuroimmunity. These changes will recover progressively with anti-depression treatment. While in similar studies on human beings, olfactory dysfunction has been found in people suffering from depression. This review briefly discusses the correlation between olfactory deficits and clinical traits of depression in different dimensions, such as the severity, duration and cognitive impairment of depression. Improving olfactory function may be expected to be a potential antidepressant therapy.

拥有良好嗅觉的人可以体验到更多的快乐和愉悦，这将引发嗅觉障碍可能与重度抑郁症 (MDD) 的发病机制相关的讨论。对大鼠进行的类似实验证实，嗅觉通路的神经损伤可诱发一系列抑郁样变化，包括行为、神经生化和神经免疫。这些变化将通过抗抑郁治疗逐渐恢复。在对人类进行的类似研究中，在患有抑郁症的人身上发现了嗅觉功能障碍。本综述从抑郁症的严重程度、持续时间和认知障碍等不同维度简要讨论嗅觉缺陷与抑郁症临床特征的相关性。