Minor Physical Anomalies in Schizophrenic Patients and Normal Controls

Abstract

The aim of the study is to investigate the rate and topographical pattern of minor physical anomalies in schizophrenic patients and normal subjects and determine their value in predicting the patient-control status. Seventy-six schizophrenic inpatients (43 men, 33 women) and 82 normal control subjects (42 men, 40 women) were examined for minor physical anomalies on the Waldrop scale. Schizophrenics showed a higher rate for almost all examined anomalies, the differences reaching statistical significance for six of them: fine electric hair, epicanthus, high/steepled palate, tongue with smooth/rough spots, third toe the second, and big gap between I and II toes. They have significantly higher values for 5 out of 6 body regions and for the total anomalies score. Anomalies in schizophrenics show higher prevalence in the craniofacial complex than the periphery, but the periphery is also considerably stigmatized. Seven anomalies distinguish patients from controls, classifying correctly 81.6% of the patients and 82.9% of the controls. Some anomalies show an almost equal rate in the schizophrenics and the controls, while the rate of others is more than 10 times greater in the patients (odds ratios range: 1.0 to 10.9). Viewed within the multifactorial-polygenic threshold model of liability to a disease, minor physical anomalies might reflect a type of neurodevelopmental risk factor, which by interaction with other genetic or environmental factors could result in passing a threshold and producing symptoms of the disorder, at least in one subpopulation of schizophrenics.

Minor Physical Anomalies in Patients with Schizophrenia, Unaffected First-Degree Relatives, and Healthy Controls: A Meta-Analysis

“…Fourteen studies [8], [13], [14], [21], [22], [23], [24], [25], [26], [27], [28], [29], [30], [31] compared total MPA scores between patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls, comprising 1207 patients and 1007 controls. Figure 2 shows the individual studies that were included in this analysis.…”

“…Several studies from the same research groups had apparently overlapping samples to varying degrees [7], [8], [9], [10], [11], [12], [13], [14]. Four studies were excluded after this procedure; thus, 14 studies remained that included comparisons between patients and controls, and six studies had data on first-degree relatives.…”

Minor physical anomalies are more common in schizophrenia patients with the history of homicide

“…Once formed they persist into adult life and are readily detected on visual examination of the particular body area. Minor physical anomalies have been found with increased frequency in various neuropsychiatric illnesses (Waldrop and Goering, 1971;Méhes, 1988;Csábi et al, 2008), schizophrenia (Gualtieri et al,1982;Lohr and Flynn, 1993;Lane et al, 1997;Trixler et al, 1997Trixler et al, , 2001Akabaliev and Sivkov, 2007;Sivkov and Akabaliev, 2003;Weinberg et al, 2007) and affective disorders (Tényi et al, 2009). …”

Dysmorphic features and developmental outcome of 2‐year‐old children

“…Dysmorphic features not only are found in children with well‐defined clinical syndromes, but also often occur in the general population . They are related to an increased incidence of cancer, diabetes mellitus, autism, and schizophrenia . These associations indicate that dysmorphic features may be used as indicators of abnormal embryonic differentiation …”

“…2 They are related to an increased incidence of cancer, 3 diabetes mellitus, 4 autism, 5 and schizophrenia. 6 These associations indicate that dysmorphic features may be used as indicators of abnormal embryonic differentiation. 2 Many known genetic syndromes present with both dysmorphic features and neurodevelopmental problems, such as the 22q11.2 deletion syndrome and Noonan syndrome.…”