Minor Physical Anomalies in Unipolar Depression

Abstract

Introduction: Minor physical anomalies (MPA), are mild errors of the morphogenesis, having prenatal origin and may bear major information for diagnostic and prognostic purposes. The notion that early brain insults predispose to depression is supported by findings that some patients with the disorder exhibit morphologic evidence of subtle developmental abnormalities. Aim: The aim is to study MPA in depression. Objectives: (1) To study the association of MPA in depression, if any. (2) To study the most common MPA in depression . Materials and Methods: The study was conducted on 60 patients suffering from depression attending outpatient services and 60 healthy controls. Patients were evaluated for MPA using the Waldrop and Halverson Scale. Data were tabulated and analyzed using unpaired t-test. Results: The scores in the study group are significant than the control group suggesting an association between MPA and depression. The score of anomalies in the head, ear, and in the study group was significant. Correlation between age of onset and MPA was negative which suggests that as age increases the frequency of MPA decreases. More physical anomalies were found in the patient with a positive family history of psychiatric illness than the control group. Conclusion: A few number of studies have stressed on the need to screen and identify the link between MPA with underlying etiopathogenetic mechanisms in depression. Therefore, this is one of the few studies where a physical endophenotypic marker was evaluated helping to support the neurodevelopmental hypothesis of depression.