Anthropometerical Association of the Craniofacial Dysmorphology with Schizophrenia

Abstract

Background: Dysmorphology is more concentrated in the craniofacial region of Schizophrenic Patients. So, an early anthropometric assessment of the physical dimensions of the cranium and the face may indicate a potential clue of Schizophrenia. Aims:To study the craniofacial dysmorphology in schizophrenic patients and in healthy controls of the Agra region and to find out whether its evaluation could be used as a tool in the early diagnosis of schizophrenia. Setting and Design:This was a case-control, cross-sectional study . Subjects and Methods: Schizophrenic Patients well diagnosedby consultant psychiatrists on the basis of the DSM IV criteria of the S.N. Medical College Agra and the Institute of Mental health, Agra and healthy controls of Agra were selected for the study. The total facial height (trichion to gnathion), the upper facial height (trichion to subnasale) and the lower facial height (subnasale to gnathion) were measured among the various groups of patients and the controls. The mean data were statistically correlated by using the t test for the independent variables.

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

“…Bacanu et al [28] explained that the height and schizophrenia disorder are likely to have mostly overlapping genetic causes of discordant effect. Body height was used to relativize the value of head circumference, and this ratio was signifi-cantly higher in a study by Mishra et al [29], which is also in line with results of Huang et al [8]. Our study confirmed these findings only in male population -circumference relative to body height has been revealed as a significantly greater ratio in male schizophrenia patients, but without any statistically significant difference in the total sample.…”

Morphological integration in human skull and its possible role in etiogenesis of neuropsychiatric disorders: Deciphering the link between evolution, development and disease

“…A study established links between posterior cranial fossa dysmorphogenesis and major depression (20). Studies also linked skull dysmorphogenesis with schizophrenia (10,11,17), bipolar illness (12) and other psychoses (18).…”

“…Plausibly, these variations accumulated in the long course of evolution (33)(34)(35), through assimilation of co-variances (34,35) and epigenetic changes (36) in the gross and genetic structure of a population respectively, implied morphological integration (34,37). The inclusion of variations in the skull components in the course of evolution might have subjected a population to acquire and propagate multiple errors at molecular level (3) and to express these as aberrant genotypes and phenotypes (38), setting basis for etiogenesis of certain neuropsychiatric disorders (10,12,18,7).…”

“…Now as the skull contains brain in closed and filling proximity, certainly a deformed skull has to harbor a correspondingly deformed brain. The development of skull and brain go in tandem (16) and a cranial deformity may present as a craniofacial anomaly, the associated dysmorphogenesis of brain may result in compromised neural functions at birth or may manifest as a neuropsychiatric disorder later in life (8,10,12) depending upon the degree of disruption and consequent remodeling of molecular regulation in developing brain (39,21).…”

“…A structural basis has, however, been speculated; as in the case of epilepsy (8,9), schizophrenia (10,11), bipolar disorder (12), and certain types of migraines (8,9). This also presents a missing link connecting evolution, embryonic development and multi-factorial etiogenesis of such disorders.…”