Am J Psychiatry 1997; 154:691-693
Copyright © 1997 by American Psychiatric Association
Informative morphogenetic variants in patients with schizophrenia and alcohol-dependent patients: beyond the Waldrop Scale
M Trixler, T Tenyi, G Csabi, G Szabo and K Mehes
Department of Psychiatry, University Medical School of Pecs, Hungary.
OBJECTIVE: The authors evaluated the presence or absence of informative
morphogenetic variants in patients with schizophrenia compared with
alcohol-dependent patients. METHODS: Taking into consideration the
criticisms of the Waldrop Scale, which was widely used until recently to
define the presence of informative morphogenetic variants, the authors
evaluated the presence or absence of 56 informative morphogenetic variants
in 50 consecutively admitted patients with schizophrenia and 50
consecutively admitted alcohol-dependent patients. They made a distinction
between minor malformations (those developing during organogenesis) and
phenogenetic variants (those developing after organogenesis). A kappa index
above 75% was considered reliable. RESULTS: Thirty-four of the 56
informative morphogenetic variants met the authors' reliability criterion.
Patients with schizophrenia had significantly higher rates of three minor
malformations (furrowed tongue, multiple buccal frenula, and hemangioma)
and two phenogenetic variants (protruding auricle and large tongue).
CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that using finer distinction in the
evaluation of informative morphogenetic variants in schizophrenia may open
new perspectives in the research of the neurodevelopmental background of
schizophrenia.
