Craniofacial measures and minor physical anomalies in patients with schizophrenia in a cohort of Serbian population

Abstract

Introduction/Objective Craniofacial dysmorphology has been shown as the most prominent among physical anomalies in schizophrenia patients. The aim of the present study was to investigate the frequency of craniofacial anomalies in Serbian schizophrenia patients. Methods A list of 27 minor physical anomalies (modified Waldrop scale) and nine ratios of craniofacial measures was used to detect the presence of craniofacial dysmorphology in 126 schizophrenia patients and 124 healthy controls. Results Compared to the healthy subjects, schizophrenia patients had significantly higher rates of the following minor physical anomalies: fine hair, two or more hair whorls, fused eyebrows, wide nose basis, low-seated ears, high steepled and high flat palate, and furrowed tongue (most prevalent were vertical fissures and diffusely distributed fissures) with significance of p ≤ 0.001. The best predicting parameters for distinguishing between schizophrenics and controls were the inner canthus distance, the outer canthus distance, hair whorls (all at level p = 0.000), and high steepled palate (p ≤ 0.001). ConclusionThe results of the present study confirm the neurodevelopmental concept of schizophrenia, being potentially useful for further psychiatric-anthropological research. Clinical significance is reflected in the possibility of monitoring the potential mental illness in childhood through potential ectodermal markers, as well as the possibility of their comparison with the psychological profile in early adolescence.

Development and validation of a web-based prediction tool on minor physical anomalies for schizophrenia

“…This finding is consistent with those of most studies 3 , 4 , 21 , 40 , but failed to agree with those presented in a paper published in 2016; that study reported that patients with schizophrenia have a significantly wider palate 26 . The inclusion of the high palate and furrowed tongue in both the models shows that our results are consistent with the findings that palate and tongue anomalies represent the highest prevalence of MPAs in the mouth region of patients with schizophrenia 8 , 25 , 41 , 42 . Our results revealed that patients with schizophrenia have a greater skull height and nasal width, and smaller mouth width and palate width.…”

“…Studies have shown that hair variations are related to brain anomalies because they have a common developmental origin 22 , 25 . Our results showed that people with ≥2 hair whorls are more likely to be patients, and this is in accordance with the results of a study that measured MPAs in a cohort with schizophrenia within the Serbian population; this study reported that approximately 65.1% of patients with schizophrenia had ≥2 hair whorls 25 . Our results showed that the epicanthus is part of the proposed checklist and this has been proven significant in several previous studies 13 , 23 , 24 , 37 , 38 .…”

“…However, some studies have presented inconsistent results, with one showing that for five areas (namely mouth, feet, head, eyes, and ears) patients with schizophrenia have higher MPA scores than healthy controls 19 , but a systematic literature review reporting nobody region was more different or significant during MPA score testing than the others 12 . Reviewing the results of three papers that recorded detailed qualitative MPA items also did not lead to any consistent suggestions 23 – 25 . In two of the three studies, eight items exhibited significant differences between patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls (namely fine electric hair, hair whorls, epicanthus, low-seated ears, adherent ear lobes, steepled palate, furrowed tongue, and large gap between first and second toes), while six different items were significant in the last of the three studies (namely fused eyebrows, malformed ears, asymmetric ears, cuspidal ear, tongue with smooth-rough spots, and third toe longer than the second toe).…”

<p>Minor Physical Anomalies Among Schizophrenic Patients as a Biomarker of Its Developmental Origin in Northwest Ethiopia</p>

“…Most studies showed a furrowed tongue to be a significant marker of schizophrenia without respect to the type of furrows. 30 While other studies reported randomly furrowed tongue, transversely furrowed tongue 31 or longitudinal fissure of the tongue and few fissures diffusely distributed across the dorsal tongue surface. 30…”

“…30 While other studies reported randomly furrowed tongue, transversely furrowed tongue 31 or longitudinal fissure of the tongue and few fissures diffusely distributed across the dorsal tongue surface. 30…”