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 diagnosed by 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.
Results: The total facial height (trichion to gnathion) was elongated in the Schizophrenic male patients as compared to the controls. When we compared the schizophrenic patients on the basis of the family history of schizophrenia, it was found that there was an elongation of the total facial height in the patients with a positive family history of schizophrenia as compared to the patients without a family history of schizophrenia. There was also a significant elongation of the upper facial height (trichion to subnasale ) in the schizophrenic male and female patients.
Conclusions: There was total facial elongation and upper facial region elongation in the schizophrenia patients as compared to the controls.
Keywords: Anthropometry; Craniofacial dysmorphology; Psychiatry; Schizophrenia.