Etiologies and Treatment Outcomes of 419 Patients With Taste Disorders

Abstract

Background: Impaired taste sensation not only diminishes the pleasures of life, but it can also lead to health problems. Therefore, we retrospectively analyzed the clinical characteristics of taste disorders in 419 patients. Methods: The subjects were 146 males and 273 females who visited our facility from 2008 through 2020. The patients ranged in age from 16 to 90 years, with 81.4% of the patients > 50 years. Results: The most frequent cause of taste disorders was zinc deficiency (n = 148, 35.3%), followed by drug-induced (n = 63, 15.0%), systemic disease (n = 51, 12.2%), idiopathic (n = 39, 9.3%), postcommon cold (n = 27, 6.4%), psychogenic (n = 19, 4.5%) and dry mouth (n = 18, 4.3%). Zinc replacement therapy was administered to 309 (73.9%) patients. In 174 (56.3%) of those patients, 34 mg/day of zinc was sufficient to achieve a normal serum zinc level within 2 months, but 128 (41.9%) patients needed a higher dose. Prognoses of good, better and unchanged were seen for 206 (49.0%) patients, 87 (20.8%) patients and 126 (30.1%) patients. Patients with a duration of symptoms of ≤ 6 months showed a significantly better prognosis. Patients with zinc deficiency also showed a better prognosis, whereas psychogenic taste disorders revealed a significantly poor prognosis. Conclusion: The patients with taste disorders should be starting to treat within months of onset.

Keywords

• taste disorder
• zinc deficiency
• treatment efficacy
• prognostic factors
• kampo medicine