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Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2022 Sep 28;25(9):720-726.
doi: 10.1093/ijnp/pyac030.

Enhanced Taste Recognition Following Subacute Treatment With The Dopamine D2/D3 Receptor Agonist Pramipexole in Healthy Volunteers

Alexander Kaltenboeck  1   2 , Don Chamith Halahakoon  1   3 , Catherine J Harmer  1   3 , Philip Cowen  1   3 , Michael Browning  1   3
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Enhanced Taste Recognition Following Subacute Treatment With The Dopamine D2/D3 Receptor Agonist Pramipexole in Healthy Volunteers

Alexander Kaltenboeck et al. Int J Neuropsychopharmacol. .

Abstract

Background: Patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) show impaired performance in taste recognition tests, which suggests a possible dopaminergic influence on gustatory functioning. To experimentally test this hypothesis, we assessed whether pharmacological manipulation of dopaminergic signaling in healthy volunteers can affect performance in a standardized taste recognition test.

Methods: Physically and mentally healthy volunteers (n = 40, age 18-43 years) were randomly allocated to treatment with either pramipexole or placebo using a double-blind, parallel-group design. After 12 to 15 days of treatment (dose titrated up from 0.25 mg/d of pramipexole salt to 1.0 mg/d), taste recognition performance was assessed using a standardized and validated assay (taste strip test). Additionally, visual analogue scale ratings of subjective pleasantness and disgustingness of taste samples were obtained.

Results: Compared with the placebo group, participants receiving pramipexole showed significantly higher total recognition accuracy (medianpramipexole = 14.0, medianplacebo = 13.0, U = 264.5, P = .04). This was driven by a higher sensitivity for taste in the pramipexole group. Exploratory analysis of pleasantness and disgustingness ratings of appetitive (sweet) vs aversive (bitter) stimuli suggested that pramipexole treatment was associated with overall blunted hedonic responses, but this effect did not survive the inclusion of nausea (a side effect of treatment) as a covariate in the analysis.

Conclusions: Healthy volunteers who received subacute pramipexole treatment exhibited higher taste recognition performance compared with the placebo group. This finding is consistent with a proposed role of the dopaminergic system in gustatory functioning and could have important theoretical and clinical implications.

Keywords: Dopamine; gustation; pramipexole; taste; taste strip test.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Boxplots comparing total taste recognition accuracy after subacute treatment with either pramipexole or placebo. Pramipexole group showing higher accuracy scores than the placebo group (P = .04).
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Target sensitivity scores for different taste qualities after subacute treatment with either pramipexole or placebo. Bars represent means, error bars represent standard errors. Main effect of treatment group, with pramipexole group showing higher target sensitivity independent of taste quality (P = .046).
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