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Aims: The aim of the study was to analyze objective and subjective olfactory/gustatory function in post-COVID-19 infection (PCI)., Materials and Methods: Patients with past PCR-confirmed COVID-19 infection and persistent olfactory/gustatory complaints were investigated. Olfactory threshold and identification, gustatory detection, identification, and magnitude scaling were tested., Results: A total of 42 PCI subjects were compared to 41 age- and gender-matched controls with no COVID-19 history. All PCI tested had mild COVID-19 disease. Mean interval between COVID-19 confirmations to testing was 7.4 ± 3.1 months. PCI subjects complained of combined dysfunction in 85.7%, isolated olfactory or gustatory dysfunction in 7.1% each. Combined complaints were significantly higher in PCI (p < 0.001). Objective testing showed significantly higher prevalence of dysfunction in PCI versus controls for hyposmia (73.8%, 12.2%), anosmia (11.9%, 0%), odor identification (68.5%, 83.0%), hypogeusia (23% and 2.4%, respectively), and impaired magnitude scaling, (p < 0.05). All PCI subjects with hypogeusia had abnormal gustatory magnitude scaling., Conclusions: While most PCI subjects complained of combined gustatory and olfactory dysfunction, objective testing showed in the majority an isolated single sense dysfunction, with a low level of agreement between subjective and objective findings. Abnormal objective results for all olfactory and gustatory functions tested may suggest a central rather than peripheral mechanism, although concomitant mechanisms cannot be excluded., (© 2023 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Objective: Clinical supervision within the health professions is an important quality control mechanism to ensure good client care. The purpose of this study was to assess how supervision structure and process affect supervision outcomes for the supervisee., Design: A repeated measures within groups and between groups (individual or group supervision) design was used to explore the effects of a 6-month supervision program for staff of public sector drug and alcohol health services. Ten supervisors and 42 supervisees were allocated to either individual or group supervision conditions. Measures were completed at 3 points over a 9-month period, including a 3-month waitlist control period of no supervision., Results: Mean supervisee ratings indicated positive evaluations for supervision satisfaction and perceived effectiveness in individual and group conditions. Although an increase in burnout and decrease in wellbeing was observed during the period of supervision, these changes are hypothesized to be related to extraneous organizational issues. Enhanced perceived supervision effectiveness and positive supervisory alliance were associated with lower levels of burnout and higher levels of wellbeing and job satisfaction within the individual supervision condition. Supervisee ratings of alliance were strongly correlated with ratings of perceived supervision effectiveness in individual and group conditions., Conclusions: These results suggest that supervision can have important positive impacts on the supervisee's functioning and wellbeing when that supervision involves a positive alliance., (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved.)

The sense of taste has great importance in health and disease. Complaints of oral discomfort associated with taste disturbances are increasingly met in the clinical setting. Altered taste perception can result from various underlying local or systemic pathology, as well as serious sensorial syndromes. Although they are not straightforward to diagnose and manage, it is important for the clinician to understand the pathphysiology of this chemosensory system, and to be able to use objective measures in order to quantify and classify the apparent symptoms, thus making the first step to correct diagnosis and treatment.