Quantitative Craniofacial Anomalies in a Racially Mixed Schizophrenia Sample

Background The observation that some patients with schizophrenia display subtly anomalous craniofacial features dates back to the early 1900s and has recently been hypothesized to reflect disrupted prenatal development also involving the brain. Most studies to date have used observer ratings rather than physical measurements and have studied only Caucasian samples. Our objective was to determine whether schizophrenia is associated with craniofacial anomalies applying quantitative methods in Caucasian and African American subjects. Methods Participants were 32 Caucasian and 20 African American outpatients aged 18 to 60, meeting Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID) confirmed criteria for schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder, recently discharged from a psychiatric hospital in Queens, New York. The healthy control subjects were recruited through local advertisements and were individually matched to the patient sample on gender, race, and age. Results Thirty-two measurements of the head and face reflecting all regions of potential developmental significance were taken according to published methods and validated for this study. Significantly greater skull base width [F(1,51) = 13.11, p = .0005] and greater height of the cutaneous lower lip [F(1,51) = 7.90, p = .0059] were found among patients after applying multiplicity correction. Statistical correction for group differences in body weight did not alter the findings. Conclusions Findings agree with the two major anthropometric studies in schizophrenia.